Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1892-12-01
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SOIL MOISTURE.
IOur Grange Homes. |

AI four to six inches in depth Is
\" shaved completely from that
w below and reversed in loose
condition upon it, there is
provided a covering which acts as a
strong mulch. 1t has for long time
been believed by stuiious, observant
farmers that this checks in marked de-
gree the loss of water by evaporation
from the undisturbed soil. Precise fig
ures have been lacking, however, until
recently the Pennsylvania experiment
station made careful Investigations. One
plot was plowed April IS, 1892 and the
soil was carefully tested in comparison
with similarly unplowed field, May 6.
The unplowed ground contained in the
upper four feet, 8 l3 pounds less water
per square foot than did the plowed
ground, an equivalent of l 70 inches of
rainfall. When it is observed that the
amount of water available for crop pro-
duction, on almost all lands, is less than
that which can be used to the best advan-
tage. when one year is taken with an
other, such fact has an important bear
ing upon problems of tillage. 1t teaches
that where corn and potato ground is to
be plowed in the spring, the blowing
should be done as the soil is dry enough
to permit it and that where corn is to be
planted upon fall blowing, the disc har-
row, or similar tool. should be used upon
this ground as early as practicable, to
avoid a needless loss of water by surface
evaporation.
The prevention of excessive waste of
soil water is not the only important gain
which results from early spring tillage.
With all clay soils and olayey loans
there is a certain degree OF dryness at
which they work with the least resist
ance and are at the same time in the best
possible filth; as these soils pass from
the excessive wet stage through the
stage of best moisture to that of too lit
tie. they shrink and draw together into
the larger or smaller clods which are so
annoying, so productive of labor and so
preventive of large yields. The ground
referred 10 in the above experiment was
plowed on April IS, was left in excellent
tiith; but that which, side by ide with
it, laid eight days longer without plow-
ing, had developed in it during that time
great numbers of clods of extreme size
and excessive hardness and as a conse-
quence it became necessary to go over
this ground twice with a loaded harrow,
twice with disc harrow and twice with
heavy roller before it was brought into
condition of filth only approximating
tHdu Which, III IniSul nave udu Hdu III Deeu
plowed on April %. Not only did the
delay in blowing increase four-fold the
labor of fitting the ground, but at the
same time it resulted in an unnecessary
waste of water, which was really large
and greatly needed.
We are fast coming to believe that sur
face tillage diminishes the rate of evapo-
ration from the soil; but as yet we are
without positive data in regard to just
how great this saving may be. This
question was also studied at the above
station. 1t was found that during GA
days, for each column of soil one square
foot in section and six feet long, the I'M
cultivated ground had dried S.S4 pounds
more than cultivated. A saving
of S.S4 pounds per square foot is equiva-
lent TO a rainfall of IL inches; 301 40
pounds of water are required for pound
of dry matter incorn and the above saw
ing of water in times of shortage should
increase the yield of dry matter per acre
1877 pounds, which is about Ia per cent
of good yield. 1t should be observed
that the retaining of water already in
the ground, to the extent indicated above,
must be much more seryiceable to crops
than to have an equivalent added to the
surface in The form of train, for in all
such cases very large portion of that,
especially in dry times, is returned at
once to the air without passing through
the crop.