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Show I The Plow Is NOT the Enemy of the Farmer, . Says a Noted Agronomist, Who Replies to That Charge in a Recently Published Book 1 . By ELMO SCOTT WATSON Released by Western Newspaper Union. IS THE plow the arch-villain in the tragedy of soil erosion ero-sion that costs American agriculture agri-culture two billion dollars a year through the loss of precious pre-cious nitrogen, phosphorus and potash from the nation's farms? Or is it one of mankind's man-kind's traditional benefactors? benefac-tors? Will the plow eventually eventual-ly become an obsolete implement imple-ment and a museum piece, or will it continue to be one of farming's main reliances? Americans, especially farmers, who have learned to "revere the plow" and who read the book "Plowman's "Plow-man's Folly" written by Edward H. Faulkner and published recently by the University of Oklahoma Press, or who saw articles in the newspapers newspa-pers based upon that book, no doubt were startled when Mr. Faulkner told them that the plow was an enemy en-emy rather than a friend of agriculture. agri-culture. But the old saying about Plowing scenes such as this will not soon vanish from the American scene, says a noted agronomist who refutes the charges in a recently published book that the plow is the enemy of agriculture. there Demg two smes io every ijue!-! ijue!-! tion" has proved true again, for no less an authority than Dr. William A. Albrecht, head of the soils department de-partment of the University of Missouri, Mis-souri, now comes forward to defend the plow and to offer a rebuttal to Mr. Faulkner's charges against it. Dr. Albrecht both agrees and disagrees dis-agrees with the author of "Plowman's "Plow-man's Folly." He acknowledges that farmers In the silt loam soil areas of the United States have, in the past, plowed too much. As a result, the heavy rainfall in these regions has washed away priceless soil. But the question, "to plow or not to plow," cannot be answered "yes" or "no" nor is it safe to make hasty generalizations in any other respect while dealing with this subject. The crux of the whole question lies in the soil and climatic conditions of the geographical region involved. "We need to plow less on some soils and, conversely, we need to plow more and deeper on others," asserts Dr. Albrecht. "We need to learn that the differences dif-ferences in degree of soil development devel-opment according to climatic differences dif-ferences are factors in determining deter-mining how important the plow Is." In "Plowman's Folly," Mr. Faulkner Faulk-ner charged that the moldboard plow "now in use on farms throughout the civilized world is the least satisfactory satis-factory implement for the preparation prepara-tion of the land for the production of crops . . . The truth is that no one has ever advanced a scientific reason for plowing." Moreover, he says that the plow is responsible for "all the erosion, the sour soils, the mounting floods, the lowering water tables, the vanishing wild life, the compact and impervious soil surfaces" sur-faces" that have harassed American Ameri-can farmers for a generation. And there the University of Missouri Mis-souri scientist disagrees. He holds that even though the average farmer can't give a scientific answer to the question "Why plow?", the men of science can provide plenty of valid reasons for doing so. High on his list of reasons is the fact that this practice supplies the soil with oxygen oxy-gen which helps transform its chemical chem-ical components into usable plant food for growing crops. Aerating the Soil. "Any microbiologist will testify that plowing aerates the soil," he says. "As a consequence of the change of atrtlosphere in the soil and because of the stirring by the mold-board mold-board plow, there is new 'life.' "The soil is a factory in which energy is expended. Tons of carbon are being burned to form carbon dioxide. Sulphur is oxidized into sulphur sul-phur dioxide. Ammonia is changed to nitrate. Other similar combustions combus-tions are taking place. "A 40-acre corn field under maximum maxi-mum growing activity in July burns an amount of carbon equal to the coal used in running a 40-horsepower steam engine in order to form carbon car-bon dioxide. Can anyone deny the necessity of air for such a performance? perform-ance? Surely no one would close the draft by refusing to plow and thus destroy such crop producing power. "This burning business in the soil by means of oxygen from the air must go on, if the plant nutrients nutri-ents tied up in chemical combination with carbon are to be released for repeated use by other plants that follow. Were this performance not proceeding in the soil, life on the globe would soon become extinct. The soil's productive power would soon be expended. As a result, the soil could offer nothing and no growth could occur." Plowing has the further scientific value of helping the soil supply a larger amount of soluble nitrogen for growing crops than would otherwise other-wise be available, according to Dr. Albrecht. Studies of the nitrate supply sup-ply in soil planted to corn forcefully support this finding. - Tests were made on three adjoining adjoin-ing plots planted to corn. One plot was unplowed. The second was plowed. The third was both plowed and cultivated. The soluble nitrogen supply in the plot that was plowed and cultivated was at least 30 per cent greater than in the unplowed tract. In the plowed tract it was between 25 and 30 per cent greater. "Crop yields correspond to the level of these nitrate supplies," says Dr. Albrecht. "The farmer may not know that these higher levels of nitrate, ni-trate, are responsible for his improved im-proved crop yield. Nor may he understand that they are the result of his making the soil 'turn turtle' with his plow. He simply plows ahead of the corn to get a better crop. His inability to point out the underlying scientific channels through which the effects of plowing are transmitted to the crop, does not put the plow into bad repute in his eyes. "Surely the hundreds of thousands of corn producers will not suddenly discard so ancient an implement merely because they cannot call to I : '! i i is v I f1'' S , . JVI i I I i ; L ' A , $ f I ' i I W . V ! I -Vri p ......... .. - ... n- f - - ri ir v rr DR. WILLIAM A. ALBRECHT their aid scientific evidence, when someone concludes for them that the plow is the cause of increased erosion ero-sion and other devastation that is so easily associated with it." Villains of Erosion. To Mr. Faulkner's charge that plowing is solely responsible for erosion, ero-sion, Dr. Albrecht counters with the assertion that the real villains are continuous cropping and the steady, removal of plant food elements year after year without any effort to replenish re-plenish the soil's resources of nitrogen, nitro-gen, phosphorus and potash. "It is true that plowing and cropping crop-ping a soil year after year bring with them declining crop yields," he says. "For these one might readily pounce upon the plow as the culprit in the case.- But the fact is that declining crop yields have other causes than merely the plowing operation. op-eration. They cannot be explained away by the simple belief that 'the explosive separation of the soil mass wrecks all capillary connections temporarily'; and that 'the organic matter sandwiched in further extends ex-tends the period of sterility of the soil due to dryness.' Crops are not declining or failing because plowing is drying out the soil. "The forces that turn plowed land into bare, eroded fields are not the mold-board plow and the horses or tractor that pull it. They are the continued removal of soil fertility with little or no return of needed plant foods. Plowing is not the cause of the depletion of the fertility supply. Depletion occurs because of the fertility removed when the crop is hauled off to market. The plow is not the exploiter; rather it is the farmer. The plow is merely the tool that facilitates his exploitation at a faster rate and over more acres than before the plow was given him. The plow has helped him feed many of us too far removed from the land to appreciate its exploitation." In urging that the plow be junked as an agricultural implement, Mr. Faulkner's book advocated the use of the disc harrow as a means of producing more and better crops, because it would incorporate crop residues, green manures and organic organ-ic matter into the top soil. To this suggestion Dr. Albrecht had the following fol-lowing to say: "The author of 'Plowman's Folly' condemns the plow because it inverts completely the upper portion of the soil profile. In its place, however, he advocates the use of the disk harrow har-row which carries out a similar process, differing only in degree." To Mr. Faulkner's contention that crop residues or organic matter from plants allowed to grow -of their own accord should be incorporated into the top soil without the addition of manure, lime or other fertilizers, Dr. Albrecht replies: "Such a proposal does not take into account differences in vegetation vegeta-tion in type or quality. Weeds or forest trees as ancient as the sequoias se-quoias are taken on a par in the 'Plowman's Folly' thesis with legumes leg-umes as soil rejuvenating agencies. The author cites 'every wooded country' as a perfect example of soil maintenance, but neglects to mention the low level of fertility and the difficulty involved in maintaining maintain-ing life." Mr. . Faulkner's belief, that the prevalence of wild life on the western west-ern plains was due to the fact that this region was unplowed, comes in for some critical analysis, also. Dr. Albrecht points out that the unplowed un-plowed wooded areas of New England Eng-land which our Puritan ancestors first settled, fupported only a few wild turkeys and squirrels. In further refutation of the contention con-tention in "Plowman's Folly" that "principles which are valid in the forest are valid in the field," Dr. Albrecht asserts: "In view of the fact that the soils differ as widely as they do under forest and under prairie, we surely cannot subscribe to the belief that all 'principles valid for the forest are valid for the fields." ' Summarizing his views on the entire en-tire subject, Dr. Albrecht concludes: con-cludes: "The indictment of the plow by the book 'Plowman's Folly' will not stand against the facts of science sci-ence nor the judgment of experienced experi-enced farmers. This publication will fall far short of helping us to realize that 'the Garden of Eden, almost literally, lies under our feet almost anywhere on earth we care to step,' provided we allow vegetation to grow and cling to the disk harrow as a means of turning it under rather rath-er than to the mold-board plow." |