Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1886-09-16
Fall Flowing.
Practical Farmer.


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
I 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 turn
| ing over the four inches of top crust and
Tapping it over flat every fall, doing
this? I certainly think not 1t is well
demonstrated that rain and frost do
land very little good without the combi
nation of air and sun. In practice, the
average American farmer studies these
things in piowing, and studies them in
the order named: L. A lot of ground
turned over. 2. To kill weeds. 3. To
revive the land. And to reverse this OBJ
ject is the order of this letter. To prove
which is the best sort of blowing for
land we must go back to primitive
| mode of turning up the soil which has
long been superseded, but never excelled
nor even equaled, and that is ''spading
land" Now spading only shows US two
things: The land is set sup and open"
CLet every man study this, and whether
blowing thick or thin, pillow as near to it
as possible; he will then be doing what
the soil requires. This kind of blowing
is quite contrary to the average blowing
of to-day. Everyone seems inclined to
get the pillow that will take the widest fur
row, ignoring the first and most vital
principle in blowing; of what good is it
to kill the weeds to-day, if you do not
give the land fair chance to recover it.
self, so that the crops sown in the spring
will be able to outgrow the weeds?
maintain that if man plOws above II to
IA inches wide at the very most, he can
not set it sup 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 little more on her
head and just send the furrow so far that
1t 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 free circulation of
air and sun to pass around and under the
furrow.
This is the principle wish to impress
upon the readers mind; suppose you go
to work some strong land and 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 crop? [ am
doubtful. OF course there may be room
for argument here between strong land
| and nice loamy land, but there is very
| little to my mind. In fact, think light
and loamy land really requires more care
and skill In blowing. It's nature requires
more than strong land, and there is my
reason. Light and loamy land, if plowed
thin and put down fiat, will run together
with the first heavy rain, which will pre-
clude any of the land receiving the full
action Of the weather except just the top
side. On the other hand, strong land will
stand up through many rains. [ will al
low that strong land takes a lot more pull
verifying than lOamy land, but the
difference in the time it takes to resusci-
tate the two soils is only small. By plow-
ing 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 up and
open so that it will open and lock rough
for length of time, at the same time
presenting much greater surface to the
action of the weather. Frost is fine
thing when the land is exposed to the. &C
ton 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." Plow 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 will have more soil full of
natures forks, which will give you better
crops, and can then safely let the weeds
look after themselves.