The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1893-12-27
THE BEST TIME TO PLoW.
Fall Flowing Versus Spring Flowing, as
Considered by an Ohio Farmer.

Fall Flowing Versus Spring Plowins' as
Considered by an Ohio Farmer
Some prominent farm writers con-
denim the practice of leaving fields bare
for months during the winter under
any circumstances. Here is what an
Ohio farmer has to say on the subject
in letter to Country Gentleman:
One must admit that bare soil is
subject to loss in the winter from the
rains. Some plant food, badly needed,
escapes forever. Everything else being
equal, spring blowing is better, but |
have found that everything else is not
equal under my circumstances, and
with my present light continue to turn
sod land for potatoes in the fall and
winter, suffering all the loss for the sake
of benefits in lieu of it.
What, then, justifes the practice of
exposing soil to all the teaching rains
of winter? In my own case there are
several reasons, and they may hold
equally good on a fair proportion of
farms.
In this latitude early planting is one
of the best safeguards against failure of
almost all crops. and this especial
ly applies to potatoes. The heat is
usually excessive in Ohio for the best
development Of potatoes notably SO on
the southern border, where the season
is two weeks in advance of the lake re-
gion. The best growth of the tubers
should be got before the month of
August, and the first requisite is early
planting. Heavy spring rains are fire.
quent, and any one who has much break
ing OF land to do and is unwilling to
injure the soil by turning it before it
crumbles nicely is necessarily prevent
ed from planting as early as is desir-
able
Loans in which the clay largely pre-
dominates are rendered finer by action
of the frost, and even though the rains
pack the soil overmuch, good disk
harrow makes a fine seed bed.
admit that spring blowing leaves
the soil looser under the hill, and this
is point in favor of it, but if there is
little sand in the soil it is difficult
matter to prepare it as we'll as one de-
sires. Drought and frost are our best
pqlverizers for quite clayey loans.
When the winter is mild and wet and
the plowed fields are more compacted
than usual, I find that it pays to run
long, narrow shovel in the mark before
planting, loosening up the soil we'll.
Thirty cents an acre pays for this extra
work, and when done the soil appears
to be in as good condition. as regards
looseness under the potato, as it would
be when blowing is done in the spring.
The first fine days in the last half of
March permit us to begin narrowing
and planting, and such an advantage
overbalances all disadvantages.
There is another advantage in fall
blowing which many of our best farm
ers do not credit it. A sod furnishes
more available plant food for spring
crop when partly rotted during the
preceding winter. It is my experience
that this is true. even of corn, unless
one lets spring growth of grass be-
come heavy, and then the tender grass
appears to be readily converted into
plant food for corn. In other words,
unless sod is turned very late in the
spring for corn, / prefer to have it
turned in the winter or late fall. There
are more moisture, a better start and
thriftier growth. In the case of pota-
toes, heavy green growth turned late
in spring will cause the seed to rot in
my latitude. write only of the diff
ference between sods turned in the fall
and in the early spring. Partial decay
of the grass roots before planting
affords the greatest quantity of available
plant food. 1 II