Show DRY FARMING SUCCESS two distinct systems are arc now being employed deep plowing insures mures larger crop yield and also alo saves humus which la Is important in con erving serving sol soil moisture Moli turc dy BY E X R n dansons ransons rAn SONS in dry farm hul bul letin there are two distinct schools of dry farming one relies more on the intensive tillage of the top ive five or six sit inches rather than on systematic deep work ing of the soil boll the other might be termed sob adb soil eoll farming arming for or the results are obtained by deep plowing deep rooting and it a reservoir of 0 moisture from rom two to six elx feet under the surface where practically nothing can extract the moisture but the roots of crops anyone who plants trees two feet deep in the subsoil of a well cultivated farm and watches them grow can at once appreciate the difference between the two systems in the intensive surface system the farmer famer plows hla hill sod two or throe three inches rolls it hat flat and runs a slanted harrow over it lie he plants planta a crop on it the next season he be back sets I 1 it sets it back where it was waa before and plants a crop on the other side of it the least said about the tha yield the better in the deep plowing or subsoil syn tern tem of farming as advocated by the writer and such men as farrel of utah spalding of denver colonel beater of the transvaal eto etc etc we first disk the sod in wet weather as deep lyas possible then turn it und under er from eight to ton ten inches deep and disk the underside which Is now uppermost per most in grandfathers grand fathera time they used to plow the sod cod shallow and leave it to rot nowadays we do most of this rotting with the disk and alternate the disk with the harrow until the whole thing is reduced to a mellow seed bed A seed bed prepared in this manner and allowed time to soak up and settie with the precipitation of winter or spring Is good for 40 or BO bushels bushela of corn or three tons of sorghum feed the first year deep work also saves savea the humus which to Is as important as conserving moisture for when sod eod la Is worried to pieces on the surface until tt it Is worn out its fertilizing value estimated at about an acre tt it la Is almost en lost burned up by the atmosphere the next season we do not it the modern way Is to crosa plow it which cross chops the whole field foeldi maling making the finer yet an oilier reason we prefer caas cross plowing Is that the plow instead of fol following lowin and skidding along the same ruts attacks them at the side going under them and through them and works up all the cut and cover slices in the hard streaks left by the first breaking it if this were thoroughly understood there would be no more for the second year should produce the finest crop in the life of the field rather than a catch crop of nubbins bubbins on a two or three inch A delusion cherished by the shallow school of dry farming la Is that water may be caused to rise from the sub soil to the seed bed in dry weather by packing and that therefore there to Is no reason to plow deeply the professors of physics tell us that within certain well understood limits the densest most compact soil has the stronger capillary pull so sc even it if there was free water present the seed bed would have to be compacted until more solid than the subsoil in order to obtain a rise of mols ture from down below for instance a brick will take moisture from a sponge but the sponge will not take moisture from a brick it can also be readily understood that when a man la Is farming over a hundred feet of dry subsoil eube oll there Is no free water for it Is all absorbed and converted into film water as fast as a it falls the idea of cauree bourre has been lin ported from the humid states where tree roe water in the soil to is rather the rule than the exception it Is quite true however that afeei harrowing a newly newia plowed field in spring weather moisture seems to come to the surface it does so long as aa there is any tree free water in the top six bly inches which has not had time tc be absorbed into the subsoil but thip to is simply the top inch robbing the second and third and does docs not come from any depth As all dry farmers know win have ever plowed a field that in stead of moisture coming up from be ia low w in dry weather the seed bed com coin to dry out and if it has been aver over packed a crust forms under the mulch which in a shallow plowed field may kill the crop |