Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1883-02-03
THE FARM.
MATTER SPECIALLY PREPARED FOR TIE
"REcoRD-UNIoH."
The Value of Deep Flowing. Sub soiling
and Thorough Cultivation in Addi-
ttcn 10 Drainage-Farm Notes.

We last Saturday made some comments
upon the value and Importance OF the
drainage Of lands in order to sscure the
best results from tillage and by which
treatment also its value is equally increased
for vineyard and orchard purposes, as well
as for nearly every use. The benefits arts
ing from such preparation of lands have
long since passed the realm of experiment
and have become as firmly established
facts as that the planting of corn aud SOW
ing Of wheat are necessary preliminaries
for the subsequent harvesting Of crops of
these cereals.
Next in Importance for consideration Of
the farmer, after the sut ject Of dr4insge,
is that of deep blowing and subsoiling, and
in this State, where We nave regular recur-
ring annual droughts, or dry seasons, this
! question applies with even greater force
| than in the Eastern States, where dry sea-
sons are the exception and not the rule.
| There it has been established that by a
proper syatem of drainage, followed with
deep blowing and thorough cultivation /;
and in other cases, upon favorably located
lands, without drainage, but by deep or
subsoii plowing, and thorough working Of
the ground, the necessary moisture and
condition of soil for the growth OF crops is
main tained through oroughts, and a
full yield obtained. That this is the
| direct and exclusive result of such
preparation and cultivation of the
land is proven beyond question by the fact
that upon land not go prepared, and cult.
waited only in the ordinary methods, and
lying Immediately along side, crops in the
same seasons utterly failed and were not
worth harvesting. The methods here
recommended, and which are not new in
theory to most farmers, are worthy OF the
most earnest consideration and adoption IN
| the State. Ii by the use of these more
thorough methods of preparing aud tilling
the soil an increased yield can be secured
! in favorable years, which has been album
dainty proven-and at the same time secu-
rity against failure of crops and disaster in
unusual dry seasons-it would seem that
no consideration remained from which the
wise and intelligent farmer would fail to
adopt the necessary means to secure SO
desirable results,
The item of expense necessary to carry
out thorough system OF drainage is such,
it is true, that ali whose lands may render
it desirable and necessary may not be in
| financial condition to engage in the uRder-
taking. Those so situated, however, snd
who have heretofore only employed the
ordinary and more common methods Of
putting in erops-by shallow plowing, only
going to depth of from four to eight
inches, and subsequently preparing and
narrowing the ground in an Indifferent
manner, merely sufficient to insure the
covering of the seed, and depending upon
| the "glorious climate and natural adap-
| tation OF the soil to insure a profitable re.
| turn-n1ay, from at once adopting the
method of deep blowing or subsoiling,
very largely increase the yield per acre of
any and ell kinds of cereals secure bet.
ter quality OF grain, and hence increase its
price, and at the same time produce less
wear upon the soil than by the old method
of merely skimming or shallow plowing
| the ground. We gave in these columns
sometime since the statement of prom
inent farmer in the San Joaquin valley,
who, by deep blowing land we believe sub
coil blowing in that instance) and thorough
cultivation had, raised an excellent and full
crop OF wheat, while all the other fields
in the vicinity, cultivated only in the
ordinary easy going way, obtained no yield
whatever, and did not even reap their
fields. The case referred to was considered
at the time, as fully demonstrating the
| facts urged above, and the farmer himself
was satisfied that he had solved the ques-
ton of overcoming the failures from the
droughts, even of the upper San Joaquin
valley.
By this method, deap and thorough Guilt
walton of the ground, better and more
| equable degree of moisture and warmth is
maintained, and, in addition to these nee.
| esssry conditions, the greatest amount of
atmospheric oxygen gains admittance to
| the soil, where It's presence is absolutely
necessary to plant growth and develop
ment 1t is only in presence of free oxy.
! gen that seeds terminate, and they may be
| kept for an indefinite length of time in the
dormant state if oxygen be excluded from
| them. This accounts for the excessive
growth of weeds which sometimes occurs
in the spring after lands are SUBSIDIZED, and
which seemed to be free of weeds. The
seeds which produced the unexpected and
unwelcome crop hhd been buried in the
subzoil, and were practically removed from
the action of oxygen. During the process
of subsoiling either these seeds were thrown
to the surface with the subsoil which was
turned NJ by the plow, or else the subsoil
was stirred up and made accessible to at
mospheric oxygen. In either case the dor
mant seeds spraug suddenly into life, and
surprised the farmer by yielding an I'M
mense and unlocked for crop of weeds,
The presence of air and oxygen augments
the decomposition of the organic matters
of the soil, by which means they are con.
verted into the substances of plant nutri.
ton. Like seeds, organic matter out of
contact with oxygen may be preserved
for an indefinite length OF time.
Almost as much depends upon the physi.
cal condition of the soil when planted, as
upon its chemical composition, as to
whether the crop will be remunerative or
not. No farmer would ever think of try
ing to raise crops on bed of potter's clay,
even il he knew it contained all of the
other requisites of fertility. By the use of
the pillow during the proper seasons of the
year. and under the right conditions of
moisture and temperature, the most re-
fractory soils can be reduced to more or
less perfect state of meilowness and filth.
In the above remarks we have spoken of
deep blowing and subsoiling as distinct
methods, but these are often both included
in the latter term.
Some by the term subsoiling mean that
by means of large plows the surface soil is
turned under and replaced by material
brought up by the pillow from the upper
strata of the subsoil. The other method
of subsoiling is to have two plows, either
combined or separate, the second one fol-
lowing in the furrow made by the first.
The first is an ordinary surface pillow, and
simply opens iurrow through the SOIL
The second in the same furrow loosens up
and breaks the subsoil to depth of from
ten to eighteen inches below the bottom of
the first furrow. Each of these methods are
specially adapted for particular kinds of sub
soil. The question of how deep it is
desirable to subsoil, is to be determined by
: L. ,fur af he enLao,I -