| Show to get bigger better crops farmers should toss their plows on Junk pile says expert by ELMO SCOTT WATSON released by western newspaper union THOM THOMAS GRAY the famous T JL english poet has made immortal the plow plowman nian who homeward plods his weary way and for two centuries the plowman and his plow have been the theme of song and story building 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 society of philadelphia early in the nineteenth century to stimulate agricultural experimentation and more than a dozen of our states have the plow as one odthe symbols in their great seals in the face of this tradition it may come as a shock to most americans to be told that instead of venerating the plow we should look upon it as an enemy of agriculture and the tool that is responsible for sall all of the erosion the sour sos soils the mounting floods the lowering water table the vanishing wild life the compact and impervious soil surface which have be devilled devillen de the american farmer in recent years yet that is exactly what an agricultural expert per L tells us in a new book he is edward H faulkner and his revolutionary idea is developed in the he book Plow mans folly published recently by the university of oklahoma press and lest it be thought that he is only a theo theorist risi a visionary and a book farmer let lei it be added immediately that he is the son of a successful farmer that he was trained in agriculture at williamsburg baptist institute now cumberland college and at 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 experiments peri ments 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 at the beginning of Plow mans folly mr faulkner says that his book sets out to show that the moldboard plow which is in use on farms V throughout the civilized world is the least satisfactory implement for the preparation of land for the production 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 a man have used and approved the use of the moldboard plow nevertheless th eless 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 H he then proceeds to examine all the reasons that are given ford for plowing and points out their inconsistencies and even absurdities assuming plowed land to be better for plant growth we should find grass growing more freely on plowed land than on similar unplowed land near by he points out weeds too should show preference for plowed land volunteer growth shou should id take over and develop more rankly after land igind had been plowed than before Is this so observation is that until 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 plowing it may be weeks or even months before either natural vegetation or a planted crop will make normal growth the fact is that bare land which notably erodes worse than soil in any other condit condition lor consists almost wholly of land that has been disturbed recently by plow or cultivating implement the only other bare land is that which has been if denuded of top soil by erosion or other forces there is significance in the fact that erosion and runoff are worse on an bare land and that bare land is defined above the effect which plowing has upon this top soil is the principal reason why the author of Plow mans folly considers this instrument an enemy 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 and that this natural fertilizer crop residue and green manure crops should be incorporated into the top soil which as everybody this pretty girl seems to be heeding the all chent injunction iven erate the plow as she examines what has 1 1 been preserved of one of the first plows made by john deere the yankee blacksmith who invented the first successful steel plow in 1837 recognizes cizes is the really good soil just as mother nature does it in a forest or a meadow disk Harrow Better we have developed some useless theories in that field declares mr faulkner men have come to f feel eel for example that centuries are necessary for the development of a productive soil the satisfying truth is that man with a team or a tractor and a good disk harrow can mix into the soil in a matter of hours sufficient organic material to accomplish com 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 principal instrument in pra producing more and better crops here is why the organic matter disked into the top of the soil not only decomposes and adds to the fertility of the soil t but acts as a sponge to hold moisture where it is needed faulkner believes there 1 is a i capillary move movement ment 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 ie 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 plowed under actually 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 subsoil the crop has used all the moisture in the loose layer of top soil but can get no more from below until the organic matter plowed under has become completely decomposed and packed although the author of plow mans folly believes that the disk harrow is the farm tool which should more and more replace the plow he admits that it does have its limitations it is difficult to handle on side hills and it wont work S so well 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 farming but he does believe that the system of farming which he advocates tends to get rid of 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 infinitum fini tum under Faulk ners 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 nd the plant is cut then there is no reservoir of seed far under the surface to take its place gradually a field may get rid of weeds entirely if they are cut before they mature although of course there will always be some weeds grown from seed that is blown or carried into the fields not a new idea but the problem of weed control is after bill of lesser importance than the problem of preparing the soil so that it will be more productive in advocating his plan faulkner does not claim that it is new no new technical discoveries are to be aired here he says in his first ch chapter apter the discussion Is concerned wholly wi with ith reducing to practical terms employable in any blodys backyard or an on tiny any farm the scientific information possessed for decades but hitherto not put to any extensive use moreover he does not just advocate 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 shocked some of his neighbors with what they considered his careless methods 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 capillary action carried 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 the rows on the surface he covered the roots with rich soil and packed it down by foot by late afternoon every plant set in the forenoon was pointing toward the sky and by the following morning every plant without exception was standing upright no water was used in transplanting and that was sufficient evidence that natures own watering system was at work prize tomatoes not only did the tomatoes live but his neighbors who had been dubious of his careless methods had to admit that his was the finest field of tomatoes in the neighborhood 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 explains fifteen pounds is the standard 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 that year weighed from 10 to 14 pounds to the peck what the author of Plow mans folly did with tomatoes he also did with sweet potatoes cucumbers and be beans ans and lest it be 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 the united states department of agriculture to experiment with his theory of surface incorporation finally one of the leading agnono mists of the department set up a demonstration perhaps the intent was to disprove my theories writes mr faulkner on the contrary the outcome of the tests completely confirmed them the results of this official experiment proved that by working organic matter into the surface instead of plowing it in the resulting grain yield could be as much is as 50 per cent greater the very first year of this trial showed such a result and these a few of the illuminating lumina ting facts to be found in the pages of Plow mans folly but they all lend emphasis to its authors contention that the sooner we make ancient history of many of our pres ent farm practices the earlier we will realize that the Gard garden erlof of eden almost literally lies under our feet almost I 1 an anywhere the earth we we care to step we have rid not t begun to fo I 1 tap the actual potentialities ot of the soil for producing 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