The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1868-07-04
.Farm ami 0arne,l.


In all the processes of culture the first and
most prominent is the deep and thorough pull
verization of the soil, or. in plain terms, deep
blowing and thorough narrowing. In the alb.
sence OF this preparation We have no assurance
OF full crop. "Not SO FAST" says our friend
Stockholm; ''for when came into the country
thirty years ago, shallow blowing made us good
crops, much better than We can have now with
all your new tangled notions. The fact is, the
land Is wearing out, and you must seed down
ana let 1T recover, and then turn up the sod, and
you will be able to grow wheat and corn again.
The land is worn QUIT say worn out-and it
must be seeded down."
We do not propose to admit any such fact
that our land is wern out, but the hygrometric
change of the atmosphere has wrought a new
condition Of things, to which we must conform.
Pasturlng and blowing have been the means of
drying the soil, and to enable it to hold the re-
CURED amount Of moisture, it must be deepened !:
that Is all there is of it. Shallow culture did
very well when the air was 50 saturated with
moisture that the nightly dews were like small
shower. We might. with the same propriety,
tell our friend Stockholm that the heavens were
worn out, for they no. longer give US the supply
OF dews that We were accustomed to. If we will
pillow deep and finely commute the soil, SO that
the rain will pass down through it, and thus re-
tain the gases that are held in solution in the
rain drops We shall not only enrich the soil, but
we shall have an ample supply of moisture for
crops. 1t is said that the soil is drying out.
Most certainly it is, and for this reason We must
stir 1t more often, SO to admit the air. The
dews and rain moisten the surface, and form
thin crust which excludes the air. This crust
must be broken often il we would have the plants
make rapid growth. Suppose we have field of
winter wheat, which the winter rains have
soddened the soil, we put on harrow and stir
the surface, and at the same time destroy por.
ton of the plants with the teeth Of the harrow !;
yet the advantage is On the side of the crop The
same is true of spring wheat and oats; in fact
all the same grains
We see it stated that in England the wheat
crop is double that OF ours and yet very few of
our farmers are aware thst in England the land
is deeply titled that the seed is planted in drills
and that the crop receives repeated weddings and
hoeings, in which the steel rakes act promin-
ent part When labor becomes cheaper, or wheat
dearer, or when experience shall have demon.
strated that this hand wedding and hoeng is
profitable, then shall we also double the average
OF our wheat crop as certainly as do the wheat
growers Of Engla Cheap labor and dear
wheat are potent powers to develop good culture
Three horses are better than two to plow our
corn fields, and We trust the experiment will be
tried on the corn crop at least.
The blowing into lands of about three rods
wide is another cheap method of correcting the
dryness and the resulting heavy rains for we all
know that any long dry spells often come to an
end by a small food, which in turn saturates the
soil and stagnates the roots Of the grains, trees
and vegetables. A few plowings toward the cen.
ter raise the bed and make a deep head furrow,
and thus imperceptibly increase the depth Of the
tillage.
II we look at the grain along the center of the
land that we have back.furrowed. we see there
the best grain, the longest heads, and the talest
straw and yet the straw has not been deepened
so much drained. But, says one, Why not
tile DRAIN Simply for the want of cash, labor
and experience. But We can accomplish much
with the pillow, and these seed beds cost US moth
ing extra. The dead burrows are not filled with
water, simply for the reason that the deep tllage
has enabled the soil TO hold the heavy rain, like
sponge, and it sinks deeply, and in tine comes
back by capillary attraction.-Satu,ddy Courier.