The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1881-06-03
Cultivated Crops.

Cultivated Crops.
If one should doubt the useful effects
of cultivating crops, let him leave few
rows OF potatoes or corn in field to
grow up with weeds, or with the soil
bard and beaten, with rains, or baked
With the sun, and notice the effect As
compared with the other rows that have
been worked with the cultivator and the
hoe. Every farmer knows how poor
will be the crop unless it is well cultiva-
ted, and every farmers boy knows it,
too, although he may not very well I'M
derstand the reason for it. It matters
not what crop it may be; it may be corn
or potatoes, or it may be an apple
in the orchard, or onions in the garden.
A farmer who grew the largest crop of
potatoes ever known. and received q
large premium for it, said his success
was owing to the fact that he hoed his
crop every day. This may be true, be-
cause there is no doubt that without this
constant stirring of the soil the manure
used would not have been fully pre-
pared for the complete nourishment of
the crop; for the effect of the frequent
cultivation of the soil is very varied. In
the first place, it enables the air to cir
culate in the soil; next it enables moist
ure to penetrate to the roots; then it
helps to attract moisture in dry sea-
son and also helps to retain it in the
soil; lastly, it prevents the growth of
weeds Let us consider how these effects
are produced.
It is well known that when earth is
moistened and spread and plastered and
packed down tightly the air will not
penetrate it. We have heard of mud
cabins, and many of us have either lived
in log houses that have been chinked
with mud or we have known persons
who have lived in them, and these
houses are very warm and comfortable,
although poor and humble. They are
warm because the cold air is kept out,
but if the mud becomes cracked and
open and full of crevices, through which
the wind passes, all the warmth and
comfort is gone. 1t is precisely so with
the surface of the, soil. When this IS
beaten down and plastered and packed
by the effect of rain storms and wind,
the air can not pass through it. The
moisture-laden breezes blow over it
without adding a particle to allay its
drouth; the rains fall upon it and flow
away without sinking into it; the hot
sun dries and bakes it, and it is unable
to support the life of plant; because
where air goes moisture goes with it
the air is never free from moisture "A
cubic foot of air will dissolve or hold in
suspension q cubic inch of water, but
the power of air to hold water varies
with its temperature. Very hot air will
hold the most water, and as the air
cools the moisture becomes condensed
and appears as mist, gathers in drops
on the leaves, grass, twigs of trees and
the surface of the ground as dew, or
falls in rain. Now, when the surface of
the soil is loosened by cultivation and
becomes warmed by the sun, the, air in
it is warmed and dissolyes moisture
from as far below as the warmth
reaches; then, when the soil is cooled
in the night, and the air shrinks in cool
ing, air from without goes into the soil,
carrying more vapor with it. This vapor
is condensed ard absorbed by the soil,
and every warm summers night
millions ofegallons of water may be thus
carried into the soil on moderate-sized
farm, and the crop is refreshed.
But this constant circulation of air
has another effect. It meets with Or
ganic matter in the soil and this is acted
upon by the oxygen of the air and de-
composed. The air deprived of part
of its oxygen has then a surplus of nitro
gen, and we have reason to believe that
in this oxidation or organic matter nj
trogen is left free and forms nitrates in
the soil, and these have most useful eff
feet upon plant growth. So the circula-
ton of air in the soil has both these use
full effects. Then when shower falls
upon the loose soil how fast it sinks into
it and becomes absorbed. This water
forces out air and as it sinks and be-
comes absorbed fresh air returns again,
SO that the effect of the water is to help
this water has become spread through
the loose soil and the space is then re-
occupied by air, the great heat of the
sun does not penetrate so far, to dry out
this water, as it would if the soil were
hard. So that the loose soil acts to let
the water in and to keep it there when
LIT has-entered. Thus by cultivating the
soil we keep it moist and make it fertile.
We are manuri4g it in fact, for this til
lage, in effect, produces elements of fer
tility in the soil that would not exist
there without it. Therefore, when we
say tillage is manure We only state .
fact. Lastly we prevent weeds of culti-
walton. If we were to give horse q
feed of oats, and dozen or two of rats
should come and help him to eat them,
as indeed some farmers permit them to
do, that horse would become poor and
thin. He would not thrive, because he
had not enough food. 1t is precisely
the same with hill of corn or potatoes.
If we permit dozen or two of weeds to
feed with it, it is robbed of portion of
its food and becomes poor and weak.
And it is to avoid this that we carefully
cultivate these crops. Many farmers
suppose this is all that they do by their
work, but the other effects pointed out
are far more beneficial to the crop and