Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1892-02-25
pEEP PREpAEArIoN or LANp.

You and your correspondents are right in
your advocacy of a deep preparation of
land for crops. There are some men in
Texas who viii contend that shallow prep
aration is best, simply because they have
always made a living by the ''skimmipe''
process. The soils of Texas are so gener-
Gus that they will usually give man Nv
ing under any manner of treatment I
know of many farmers in this state who
would be starving to death were they
working lands in other states as they are
working them in Texas, and yet they are
managing to live reasonably well here.
But the days for making mere living at
farming are now about over. Farmers
must make something more than a mere
living or quit the business In this age of
progress there can be no standstill-it must
be go ahead or go back. "A struggle against
this new order of things is what rouses SO
much talk about legislation to make farm
ing pay. 1t can never be made 20 pay by
any such course. You cannot get some
thing for nothing. A business to pay must
make itself paying business directly
within itself, and any man who thinks Of
making money by a business outside OF the
legitimate details of that business will
sooner or later find himself coming out at
the little end of the horn.
The farmer must make farming pay
simply by digging that pay out of his soil,
and not by sweeping it up from the surface.
He must dig, dig, dig, and my own expert
ence and observations tell me that the
deeper he Digs the more he will get for the
digging. l have been studying this question
of deep preparation for crops through sew
eral years, and have also been practicing it.
and have ever found that the man who
digs deepest gets the best yields. 1 do net
think It would be possible to break lands
too deep for any crop.
One of your correspondents seems to
think sub-soiling might not be best can
not see why not. Why not keep the soil
rollinga Most farmers viii agree that rest
makes land better. Then let the land rest
by turning the surface under below the
reach of crops. We viii suppose that you
are cultivating ten acres of land. You get
good crop from it this year, but think il
would be the better Of rest next year.
On the old plan you would have it in idle
ness and transfer your next years opera
tons to another ten-acre field. The field
of this year would grow up TO weeds, and
it would take plant from the soil to make
those weeds. Why not give that ten-acre
field 4 rest, by turning it under where there
would be no weed-draft upon it. and in
stead of moving to the next field, cultiyat-
ing the ten-acre field that last year was
resting beneath the reach OF your pianist
1 am an earnest advocate OF deep prepar-
effects, and because have seen and felt
the bad effects Of the so-cailed Swimming
process" TRINITY.
Tarrant County, Tex
There might exist circumstances under
which subsoiling would not be best, as in
the case Of sosgy lands for example, but
there are certainly no circumstances under
which deep preparation would not be best.
We have tried deep preparation on every
character of land and have never yet had
it fail to pay Us well fo- the extra outlay
involved in the deep preparation In a dry
climate it is certainly the next best thing to
irrigation.
TOBACCO ON TIE BLACK LANDS.
Twas much interested in your article on
tobacco culture, appearing IN last weeks