Show To Get Bigger Better Crops Farmers Should Toss Their PI Plows ws on Says Expert By ELMO SCOTT WATSON Released by Western Newspaper Union GRAY the famous THOMAS English po poet t has made im- im immortal immortal mortal the plowman who home homeward homeward ward plods plods' his weary way and for two centuries the plowman and his plow have been the theme of song and story build build- building building ing up the idea that they are the benefactors of mankind In fact Venerate the plow was the motto engraved upon the medals offered by the Agricultural cul- cul cultural tural Society of Philadelphia early in the Nineteenth century to stimulate agricultural al exp experimentation ri- ri and more than a doz- doz dozen dozen en of our states have the plow as one of the symbols in their gre great t seals In the face of this tr tradition it may come as a shock to most Americans to be told that in- in instead instead stead of venerating the plow we should look upon it as an en- en enemy enemy emy of agriculture and the tool that is responsible for mall all of the erosion the sour soils the mounting floods the lowering water table the vanishing wild wildlife wildlife life the compact and impervious have be- be bedevilled bedevilled ous soil surface which devilled the American farmer in recent years Yet that is exactly ex- ex exactly what an agricultural expert ex- ex expert pert tells us in a new book H He is Edward H. H Faulkner and his revolutionary idea is developed in the book Folly pub pub- published published recently by the University of Oklahoma Press And lest it be bethought bethought thought that he is only a theorist farmer a visionary and a book let it be added immediately that he heis heis is the son of a successful farmer that he was trained in agriculture at Williamsburg Baptist institute now Cumberland college and at atthe atthe the University of Kentucky that he has been a county agent in Kentucky and Ohio a Smith Hughes teacher of agriculture and a soil and crop investigator in private employment Moreover he has carried on his ex- ex experiments experiments in garden plot and on a farm scale on land which he owns in Ohio and by his crop yields has translated theory into solid fact fatt At the beginning of Folly Mr Faulkner says that his book sets out to show that the mold mold- moldboard moldboard board plow which is in use on farms throughout the civilized world is the least satisfactory implement for the preparation of land for the production production tion of crops This sounds like a paradox perhaps in view of the fact that for nearly a century there has been a science of agriculture and that agricultural scientists almost to toa toa a man have used and approved the use of the moldboard plow Never Never- Nevertheless the statement made above is true and capable of proof Much of the proof as a matter of fact has come in left handed manner from scientists themselves The truth is that no one has ever advanced a scientific reason for plowing He then proceeds to examine all the reasons that are given for plow plow- plowing plowing ing and points out their inconsistencies cies and even absurdities Assum Assuming Assuming ing plowed land to be better for plant growth we should find grass growing more freely on plowed land than on similar unplowed land near nearby by he points out Weeds too should show preference for plowed land Volunteer growth should take takeover takeover over and develop more rankly after land had been plowed than before Is this so Observation is that un- un until until til plowed land has subsided again to its former state of firmness plants develop in it quite tardily if at all When dry weather follows the plow plow- plowing ing it may be weeks or even months before either natural vegetation or a planted crop will make normal growth The fact is that bare barc land which notably erodes worse than soil in any other condition consists al- al almost almost most wholly of land that has been disturbed recently by plow or cultivating cultivating implement The only other bare land is that which has been denuded of top soil by erosion or other forces There is significance in the fact that erosion and runoff are arc worse on bare land and and that bare land is defined above The effect which plowing has upon I this top soil is the principal reason why the author of Fol- Fol Folly Folly ly considers this instrument an en- en enemy emy rather than a benefactor of agriculture In fact the principal thesis of the book is that it is wrong to plow natural fertilizers deep into the soil solI and that this natural crop er-crop residue and green manure should crops be incorporated into the top soil which as everybody s This pretty girl seems to be heeding the an- an ancient Yr- Yr cleat injunction Yen Ven Venerate car Y 4 erate the plow as she shee e examines amines what has r been preserved of one of the first three plows F made by John Deere 4 the Yankee blacksmith who Invented the first z g successful steel plow In 1837 I b r f tl K R r rs d Wyk y recognizes is the really good soil just as Mother Nature does it in a forest or a meadow Disk narrow Harrow Better We have developed some useless theories in that field declares Mr Faulkner Men have come to feel for example that centuries are necessary necessary essary for the thc development of a pro pro- productive productive soil The satisfying truth is that man with a team or a tractor and a good disk harrow can can mix into the soil soil in a matter of hours sufficient organic material to ac- ac accomplish accomplish results equal to what is accomplished by nature in decades In fact it is the disk harrow rather than the plow which should be the farmers farmer's principal instrument in producing pro pro- producing more and better crops Here Herc is why The Thc organic matter disked into the top of the soil not only decomposes and adds to the fertility of the soil but acts as a sponge to hold moisture where it is needed Faulkner be- be believes believes there is a capillary movement of water upward from the subsoil When the surface of the soil contains organic matter this top layer not only holds water but is able to reO re- receive it from below Conversely when the soil has been plowed the loose layer at the surface loses its capillarity while the layer of green manure manure plowed under actually insulates insulates lates the upper surface of soil from the subsoil This blotter is often the reason why a crop shows lack of moisture when there is moisture in the sub sub- soil The crop has used all the moisture in in the loose layer of top topsoil topsoil soil but can get no more from below until the organic matter plowed under un- un under der has become completely decomposed decomposed posed and packed Although the author of Plow mans man's Folly believes that the disk harrow is the farm tool which should more and more replace the plow he admits that it does docs re habe its limita- limita It is difficult to handle on onside onside side hills and it wont won't work so well wellon on stony soil Nor is it the complete answer to the question of how to get rid of weeds He concedes that there is no such thing as completely weed weed- less farming but he does docs believe that the system of farming which he pd- pd d- d tends to get rid of weds weeds while the plow tends to encourage them For every time land is plowed seeds are buried for future sprouting Then when it is plowed again some of the seeds are brought to the surface for growth while more seeds are turned under to await their turn to sprout and so on ad in- in Under Faulkner's plan of using the disk harrow rather than the plow the weeds are mixed up into the top soil and their seeds are never very far below the surface When such seed grows into a plant and the plant is cut cut then there is no reservoir of seed far under the thes s surface race to take its place Gradually I a field may get rid of weeds entirely if they are arc cut before they mature although of course there will al- al always always ways be some weeds grown from seed that is blown or carried into the fields Not a New Idea But the problem m of weed control is is after all all of lesser importance than the problem of af preparing the soil so that it will be more tive In advocating his plan Faulk- Faulk Faulkner I ner does not claim that it is new No new technical discoveries are areto areto to be aired here he says in his first chapter The discussion is con con- concerned concerned wholly with reducing to practical practical terms employable in anybody's any anybody's body's backyard or on any farm the scientific information possessed for decades but hitherto nc not t put to any extensive use Moreover he does not just advocate advocate cate a theory but he cites his own experience to prove that his theory is practicable For example there was the way he demonstrated its validity with the tomatoes which he transplanted even though he hc shocked some of his neighbors with what they considered his careless methods t First he harrowed down a crop of rye that had grown three feet tall mixing rye and soil until hardly a trace of vegetation remained Then he marked the land off in rows using an instrument he designed himself to pack the worked soil of the rows firmly This was done to patch the soil back together so natures nature's capillary carried action on by the plant root system could keep on elevating moisture to the surface for his tomatoes He cleaned all the dirt from the roots of his tomato plants and laid them along th the rows rowson rowson on the surface He covered the roots with rich soil and packed it down by foot By late afternoon every plant set setin setin in the forenoon was pointing toward the sky and by the following morning morn morn- morning ing every plant without exception was standing upright No water was vas used in transplanting and that was was sufficient evidence that natures nature's own watering system was at work Prize Tomatoes I Not only did the tomatoes live live but his neighbors who had been du- du dubious dubious bious of his careless methods had to admit that his was the forest finest field of tomatoes in the neighbor neighbor- hood There was further proof of the fact when he sold his tomatoes for he received as much as 25 cents a peck above the top price in the Cleveland market One reason for this was the exceptional weight of my packed pecks Mr Faulkner ex- ex plains Fifteen pounds is the stand stand- standard standard ard weight of a peck of tomatoes It was not unusual for a peck of my tomatoes to weigh 16 pounds and many weighed 17 Most local tomatoes to- to tomatoes matoes that year weighed from 10 to 14 pounds to the peck What the theauthor the author of Folly did with tomatoes he also did with sweet potatoes cucumbers cucumbers bers and beans And lest it be bethought bethought thought that his methods apply only to garden truck let it be recorded that they apply also to field grain Several years ago he began nudging nudging ing the United States department of agriculture to experiment with his theory of surface incorporation Finally one of the leading agronomists agronomists mists of the department set up a demonstration tion Perhaps the intent was to dis- dis disprove disprove prove my theories writes Mr Faulkner On the contrary the outcome of the tests completely con con- confirmed confirmed firmed them The results of this official experiment proved that by working organic matter into the surface instead of plowing it in in the resulting grain yield could be beas beas as much as 50 per cent greater The very first year of this trial showed such a result And these are only a few of the illuminating il- il illuminating facts to be found in the pages of Folly But they all lend emphasis to its authors author's contention that the sooner we make ancient history of many of our pres- pres present present ent farm practices the earlier we will realize that the Garden of Eden almost literally lies under our feet almost anywhere on the earth we care to step We have not begun to tap the actual potentialities of the soil for producing crops |