Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-04-10
RAIN M


We are having a good deal of rain
and very unfaForable weatherfo for plow-
ing and all tillage operations; and it
may be profitable to study the art of
storing water in the soil and subson. to
make a crop in seasons of drouth, when
poor farmers suffer most from a def
cheney of moisture in the ground. How
can we husband rain water that falls
on every square rood of earth to the
best a~dyantageP In the economy of
agriculture it is a force Of inestimable
value. Let us learn if we can the nat
ural capacity of a cubic foot of com
mon clay or loan to hold water when
unbroken by the pillow, and when thor
oughly eomminuted AS In perfect tillage.
q If the farmer should go into his field
and carefully dig all the soil away
from a square foot of ground to the
depth Of eighteen inches, he might
undermine the mass that remains in a
way to give him a cubic foot of his soil
and subsoil. This might be weighed
at once, and then dried In the sun and
weighed again. The loss of weight
would indicate the pounds of water
escaped. Surprising the soil to be
rather compact clay, it would not fall
to pieces, and one could easily learn by
experiment how much water would be
required to saturate this cubic foot of
earth before it would drip. Many ex-
periments of this kind have been tried
by the writer and others. A hard
lump of clay, such as the pillow often
leaves in breaking land viii hold
two or three times more water,
If crushed ana made full of pores, than
1t viii IN its compact previous condi-
ton. By crushing the cubic foot of
untitled earth we augment its capacity
to hold water In the same ratio, more
or less, according to the -closeness Of the
at one time, and its extreme por-
business after pulverization. Breaking
up the subsoil and pulverizing it, great
~ increases its storage room to hold
water, to carry ones crops through any
possible or probable drouth. 1t does
much more than this. 1t operates to
condense in the deeply stirred earth,
andwithinits magicpores, all the fertl-
izIng gasest that exist in the atmosphere.
Carbonic acid In the air supplies car
bon to all growing plants; but it forms
only one part IN twenty-five hundred of
our common air. Condensed gases in
a well titled field, 30 increase the sup
ply of carbonic acid gas from the atmo-
sphere, added to that from decaying
mold, as sometimes to givea cubic inch
of water in the soil about the roots of
needy plants, $500 times more of this
plant food than a cubic inch of air
about their leaves contains. Leaves
imbibe carbon that assists in forming
wood-tIssue and growth; but tits to the
large root development that the farm
e. must look to secure his best
paying crops. Water in the soil
should be rich In useful min
.eral salts as well as in gases,
How to draw from the deep subsoil the
largest attainable quantity of available
agricultural salts is the problem to be
solved. How much force of team in
oxen, mules OF horses, mot to name
steam,) can a farmer proitably apply
to the work of perfect tillage? We be.
heve that force in oxen is considerably
cheaper than in mules or horses, al
things considered. An OK is only cheap
grass, which is mainly sunshine, all
and water. One yoke of spry oxen tt
turn over the surface soil, and two pair:
equally spry to stir and crush the sub
soil, leaving it in its natural place, vii
together perform the great work of soil
communion much better than it i
generally done anywhere in the UniteC
States.
Considered as a whole, tillageis shall
low and defective; and it is our aim t
suggest reasons why it should be deep
ened and otherwise improved. IL W
could regard it as in our powerto brini
earth to the depth of three feet to hol
its maximum of water and not be to
wet for corn and cotton, the suppl
would be sufficient not only to furnis
all needful moisture, but allother plan
food. To this rule there might be
few rare exceptions. But We can nevG
have really cheap blowing till We lear
to raise cheap grass and cheap oxel
which implies cheap meat, chea
bread, cheap wool and cheap eottol
The force Of mules, horses and bipe
laborers costs US three or four timt