The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1883-04-06
Deep Flowing Useful and Injurious.


One intelligent, practical farmer viii
tell you his experience has shown con-
clusively that deep culture of the soil is
important and highly profitable.
Another, of equal intelligence and ex-
perience, will assert that he positively
knows deep blowing to be very injurious.
Both may be right The agricultural
journals have abounded in such state
ments during thirty years past. An ex-
animation Of the why and wherefore
will afford q useful lesson.
How do plants get the materials that
increase their bulk? Mainly from the
air. A loan made up almost wholly of
sand and clay, after growing two or
three tons per acre of clover. for exam
ple.: will contain more vegetable or or
ganic matter than before bearing the
crop. The leaves have upon their SUR
face a vast number of very small
mouths or openings, often over hum
dred thousand upon asingle square inch
as shown by the microscope. Through
these carbonic acid and other gases are
absorbed and decomposed, part being
retained as plant food. Remove the
leaves from any plant, and it ceases to
grow. The fine rootlets and root hairs
doubtless absorb little food from fer
tilizers and organic matter in the soil,
especially nitrogen and the minerals of
the ashes.
Without discussing the question how
much comes from each source, we know
that the sap conveys the food both from
leaves and roots, and deposits it here
and there and everywhere through the
plant just as the blood gathers mate
rails from the digested food passing
through the alimentary canal of our
bodies, and deposits the atoms that
nourish and strengthen the muscles,
nerves, bones and all other organs. The
sap is to the plant what the blood is to
the body. This sap comes mainly from
moisture in the soil.
The suns warmth greatly assists the
preparation of the food material
collected by the leaves, adapting it for
plant nourishment. We speak of warm
growing weather. But while the
hot sun rapidly increases the prepare
tion of plant food, it dries off the sap
faster from the leaves, and also the
moisture from the surface soil, so that
the roots can not get full supply. In
both these ways the sap-the- life blood
of the plants diminished, and for
want of this the food distribution or
growth is lessened, and frequently is
stopped altogether. The leaves curl,
the plants droop, often dying out after
a few hot days. This is especially the
case on shallow soils, and on prairie
land which, by reason of its dark color,
absorbs more of the SUMS heat than
those of lighter color. Owing to the
loose texture of such soils they bring up
moisture from below much less rapidly
than fine, compact loans and clay
Is it not plain then, that. if a soil is
plowed deep and made fine, so that air
will penetrate deeply, and the plant
roots be thus invited well below the sur
face, out of the SUMS reach even in a
drouth, which seldom dries more than
two to four inches deep, the plants hav-
ing such roots will be always supplied
with the needed sap, and the growth
will proceed rapidly even in the dryest
days. Hence, as a rule, deep blowing
and working of the soil are highly adj
vantageous.
But not always. The porous prairie
soils are usually in fair condition foot
deep or more; the air has circulated
through them, destroying deleterious
acids, poisonous salts, etc. On heavier
soils, so compact that the air has never
circulated below the immediate surface,
the subsoil may be actually filled with
poisonous substances. We know that
earth brought up in digging wells and
deep bitches will seldom support vege-
table life, for year or two at least.
To run pillow down into such a soil
three or four inches below the previous
~ stirred surface, and turn up heavy
layer of it, may actually kill the first
crop sown or planted.
The right way, with such soils, is to
go down an inch or two annually, and
bring up a. little new soil each time, but
not enough to materially harm the
growing crops. In this way we may in
time secure ahealthful, porous, aerated,
deep plant bed, that will furnish album
dant moisture in the hottest season,
besides providing new supplies of inor-
ganic food needed for the best growth
of crops.-Or0aage Judd, IN american
AQr5cuLt2t4'ist.