The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1886-10-15
ABOUT FALL-PLOwING:
The Best Method of Reviving Land an
Killing Weeds.

The Best Method of Reviving Land and
Killing Weeds.
The theory of blowing is to turn up
the soil so that the sun and air can act
upon it to resuscitate exhausted gases,
or 1 might perhaps more aptly term it,
generating latent forces necessary to
vegetable life I now ask the question
of every farmer who reads this: Do you
do this to the best of your ability? Is
turning over the four inches of top
crust and tapping it over fiat every
full doing thisP l certainly think not.
1t is demonstrated that rain and frost
do land very little good without the
combination of air and sun. In prac-
tice the average American farmer
studies three things in blowing, and
studies them in the order named: %
A lot of ground turned over. (2) To
kill weeds. 60 To revive the land.
And to reverse this order is the object
of this letter. To prove which is the
best sort of blowing for land we must
90 back to a primitive mode of turning
up the soil which has long been super
seeded, but never excelled nor even
equalled, and that is ''spading land. -
Now, spading only shows US two
things: The land is set cup and open.
Let every man study this, and whether
blowing thick or thin, pillow as near to
it as possible; he viii then be doing
what the soil requires. This kind of
blowing is quite contrary to the aver
age blowing of to-day. Every one
seems inclined to get the pillow that will
take tho widest furrow, ignoring the
very first and most vital principle in
IS lot 4 - > 70 - 4Io
weeds to-day if you do not give the
land a fair chance to recover itself, so
that the crops sOWn in the spring will
be able to outgrow the weeds? 1 main
tain that if a man plows above twelve
to fourteen inches wide at the very
most, he can not set it cup and open"
Most plOws are inclined to press the
furrow a little and make it look nice.
When this is the case run the pillow a
little more on her head and just send
the furrOw so far that it falls over
gently, so that any one can stand in
the front of the furrow and see right
down the underside In most places
this allows a free circulation of air and
sun to pass around and under the fur
row.
This is the principle ! wish to i'm
press upon the readers mind; suppose
I YOU 90 10 WOIh SOIu6 SbIOIlO 1dilu anu
YOU flap it over (cut and cover) sixteen
or seventeen inches wide, and the same
thickness that the majority pillow. Do
you think YOU could get any kind of a
crop? l am doubtful OF course there
may be room for argument here be-
/ twixt strong land and nice lOamy land,
/ bnt there is very little to my mind.
/ In fact, I think light and loamy land
/ really requires more care and skill in
/ blowing. Its nature requires more
/ than strong land. and there is my rea-
/ son. Light and loamy land, if plowed
/ thin and put down fiat, viii run to-
gether with the first heavy rain, which
/ viii preclude any of the land receiving
the full action of the weather except
lust the top side. On the other hand,
/ strong land viii stand up through
many rains. [ will allow that strong
land takes a lot more pulverizing than
loamv land but the difference in the
/ time it takes to resuscitate the two soils
is only small BY blowing a light and
loamy land little deeper, say six
| inches. and not wider than twelve to
thirteen inches, and running the pillow
a little on her head you can set it mp
and open so that it viii open and look
( rough for a length of time, at the same
time presenting a much greater sur
/ face to the action of the weather. Frost
is a fine thing when the land Is ex-
posed to the action of the air and sun
also. but a poor factotum without
them. and my opinion is that it applies
equally to loamy soils. Just try It,
Pfow deep in the fall, so that there
shall be plenty of mold for the roots Of
crops to work in At the same time
YOU viii have more soil full of nature I
forks, which viii give you better crops
and can then safely leave the weeds L
look after themselves. - Prdcttcd
EtrF-yF3eV