Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1873-11-15
FALL AND WINTER PLowING.

II
There are so many advantages in
blowing ground in the fail and early in
the winter that they should be often
held mp to public view in farming
community to be seen and considered
as matters of great practical impor-
lance. A volume might be written on
the practice, chemistry and philosophy
of tillage, or stirring the earth with
pillow, harrow, hoe, spade, clod-crusher
snd roller, thoutexhaustingt sub
ject. Why is blowing better when done
at one time of the year than at another!
Not many farmers have carefully stud
led this question; yet no one more de-
serves consideration, if We would un-
/ cerstand the nature OF tiiiage and how
stirring the soil increases Its natural
| fertility and the crop harvested. The
pillow pulverizes the ground multiplies
immensely the pores which are open to
receive and hold fall and winter rains.
When this water freezes in titled earth
it expands and still farther separates
particles Of the most compact clay,
sand and vegetable matter. When this
ice melts and the water dries out IN
part, the plowed soil is exceedingly fine
and mellow. The mechanical force OF
hard freezing has done more good to
, the farmer by reason of his fall plow-
, ing than it would have done on the
same ground if he had not broken 1t
; up till spring, and just before planting.
, Flowing is itself a very plain mechan-
: ical operation, and the expansion OF
, water in changing into solid ice is also
{ a mere physical process, but one OF
] great power. A ridge of earth thrown
: up by the pillow is far more exposed to
cold in winter than it would be if no
t blowing had been done. 1t is also more
i exposed to thaw by every warm south
e wind, and by all sunshine than it would
t, be If the ground were fat and smooth.
e Hence it follows that kind nature &C.
: tually stirs the plowed ground several
II times for the wise cultivator during the
: two months that precede early planting
e in the spring. Her freezing and thaw-
e ing and melIowing his plowed fields &C,
tually cost him nothing; for the land
= mustbe plowed or no paying crop can
:: be grown.
Having noticed briefly the mechani-
/; cal results of fall and early winter pillow
ing. let us give little attention to the
il chemical effects that accrue from the
same operation. The pillow and fros
at mellow the ground. Before watel
leaves these millions of soil pores they
as begin to condense atmospheric air
which has about q parts of Oxyger
r. gas in every 100 of air. If the tlllet
Mt ground has not been made fine, or pull
verified by frost and tillage, its powe
of condensing vital air, called oxygen
It, is one of the principal sources of tn
ut fruitfulness of our mother earth, an
that stirring and tilling the groun'
We condenses this gas in its pores, frOr
which result the most important chem
on zeal and vital actions. Condensed OK
ygen attacks carbon in vegetable mole
IN and forms carbonic acid, which dis
ny solved in water and added to tina
OF which exists naturally in the atmos
n, phere, enables this water to dissolv
lal common lime rock, and many silicate
he and other minerals which form ashs
he when crops are burnt. If plant foo
were soluble in water like common sa
ms, epson and glauber salts, these fertll
ms zers would dissolve entirely in a fe
hard rains, run into rivers and the Sc
'ir. leaving all islands and continents pc
'ou fectly barren. 1t would not do to hay
u! limestone, granite, syenite, gneis, sla
aid and other rocks. nor their debris, al
the more soluble in water than they no
are for the common good of plants al
no. animals, with reasoning, industriOI
ret, man at their head. There is VOL
an, for his hands, and work for his int
ggy lect. In the infancy of mankind, whit
liar their numbers are few as compar,
with the vast area of the earth's arab
! l surface, manual labor in agriculture
to sufficient; but in time science becom
got indispensable. At this time tits need
i'm most to recuperate impaired fertilit
Thousands run to fresh lands to esca
gly the expensive purchase of fertllize
for for old fields long under the pillow.
orse Some strike boldly into the subsoil a
often with marked success. Othe
you find great benefit in the use Of Glow
rest, plaster and some manure. A go
No. turf to turn up with the pillow to !
1rs. through the winter for corn or colt
. is very desirable. To command Il
ehY moreland ought to be seeded in orcha
low. grass, red top, timothy, and oat gr;
Yrs. in the South. Georgia has nearly fo
million acres in corn and cotton viii
consume vegetable mold Union a
ex- american.