Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1872-02-23

to be upon such a bed as this. 1t
certainly needs no argument to
prove that ground plowed to the
depth of twelve inches will retain
more moisture, and endure severer
drouth, than that plowcd only two
or three.
Farmers i'll some of the great al
luvial portions Of the South are al
ready practicing very deep tillagc,
through the agency Of steam plows,
imported from England, with very
marked results. Those who have
read the reports of this enterprise
will not fail to appreciate the great
advantages of this system of agri-
culture. 1t would indeed be nov
city with us to see ground stirred to
the depth Of eighteen to twenty -four
inches, but really, it is nothing new,
or even difficult. And few such
seasons as the past, in rapid rccur-
renee, will surely arouse our people
to the necessity of adopting some
system by which to avert the effects
Of our climatic extremes. It's we'll
known that while deep culture has
the effect to make dry ground
moist, it also has the paradoxical
effect of making wet ground dry
So that, let the climate be what it
may, and seasons be rs they may,
the effect cannot be otherwise than
beneficial.
In conversation with an intclli-
gent farmer, a few days since, not
ten miles from here, he remarked
that when he came on to the place
he now occupies, it had been run on
the skinning process for some fif-
teen years, and he thought it was SO
nearly exhausted, it having a light,
gravelly soil and subsoil, that it
would scarcely raise anything. But
he concluded to try the effect of
deep blowing, SO, to secure the OBJ
ject, he put on three horses, and put
the pillow down six or seven inches,
and the result was twenty bushels
of wheat to the acre the first
year. Now, l am satisfied that
q system of culture may be
adopted without artificial irrigation
by which we may bid defiance to
drought in any part where the
ground has the benefit of rain in
the winter and spring, and this will
probably extend to most of the arid
plains Of Western Kansas and Col
orado, which have long been re-
garded as desert waste.
;. l will suggest that this plan may
be practiccd to some considerable
extent by the use Of two teams and
two plows, one pillow following il
the furrow of the other, and we ma,
not be obliged to wait for the com
ing of the snorting steam horse, t.
realize in some degree our ideal
1t may be objected that such s
practice would incur too great ex
pensc, but slight reference to :
few figures will dispel any such il
fusion. Suppose it should cos
twice as much to pillow the ground
and the increase in wheat should
be only five bushels to the acre, i
would require no more seed, nc
more fence, no more taxes, and bu
a trifle more expense in harvest
and it is certain that the extra crop
to say nothing of other advantages
would far more than compensate fol
the additional expense Of blowing
But in practice 1t may be foun(
most convenient to add only littl.
to the depth Of the furrow each year
thus commingling the Various ele
ments which are found ut different
distances from the surface in on.
homogeneous mass, to any depth re
quired.
/ Ralph Waldo Emerson onccs ait
to his neighboring farmers, in thu
town of Concord, Mass. at a time
when this subject had been occu
plying the attention of their commu
nity-"that Concord is one of the
oldest towns in the county-Middle
scx-far on now in it's third centu
ny, yet in this year very large
quantity of land has been discovered
and added to the agricultural terri
tory" He says: ave have gone te
the sub-soil; and have found tina,
we have a Concord under Concord
Middlescx under Middlescx; and
basement story Of Massachusetts,
more valuable than all the super
structure" There is volume in
this pithy remark, and l would sim
ply add, that Iowa is more than
three inches deep. Permit me to
inquire in this connection why the
farming lands in Europe are con
stantly increasing in fertility, while
many of our own arc as constantly
running down? Some may imag.
inc that it is manure. But how
long does manure last? We manure
our lands as well as they, and many
of us quite rs much, but manure
creates only a temporary fertility;
it is soon exhausted, as we all by
exDerience know. But the fertility