The McCook tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 1886-1936, 1894-09-21
Sub-Soii Flowing.
CALVERT. NEB. A

CALVERT, NEB., August 2oth.
EDITOR BREEZE.
Dear Sir:-I herewith submit a short
report concerning "sub-soil blowing" in
this country.
About the 18TH of this month I visited
Geneva, Fillmore county, Nebraska, for
the purpose of personally investigating
what had been done there by the nursery
firm of Younger Bros & Co., who have
been sub-soil blowing for two years past
was shown the rye that had been
raised on sub-soil plowed ground, which
made IS bushels per acre, and oats that
yielded 40 bushels and upwards per acre,
also corn, which at the time was there,
did not show the drouth at all, and was
at least foot higher than the corn
planted nearby on ordinary blowing.
To be brief will state that l was so
"taken" with the idea that / bought a
sub-soil plow as soon as got to Council
Bluffs and shipped it home for use on my
farm AS soon as it rains.
1 will say further that 1 am satisfied
that if we farmers would sub-soil our
ground, and only farm one-ha1f as much
land, the results would be much more
satisfactory in every way, particularly
for the reason that if our land is stirred
to depth of from IA to IS inches, we
would seldom feel the effects of a drouth
after the ground has once been vet down
to the bottom of the furrow-as our soil
will hold the moisture like sponge and
we always get rain enough to finish
crop under such conditions
From the following it will be noticed
that the difference in the yield of various
crops harvested from ground that was
sub-soil plowed last fall was from ; to 3H
times as great as was the yield from land
adjoining and from land cultivated in
the ordinary way.
Extract from the report made on July
I4th, by Messrs. Younger Bros. & Co.,
of Geneva, Nebraska, to the Hon. J.
Sterling Morton, Secretary of Agricul-
ture, and I heartily endorse every word
in their report, and I believe that if all
the farmers, especially those who occupy
the high table lands of western Nebras-
ka, would practice sub-soil cultivation,
it would revolutionize farming in this
part of the state, as it has done in Fill
more county, so far as tried:
"After preparing the ground by SUBJ
soil blowing in the fall Of 1892, the crop
of 1898 consisted of corn and potatoes.
NoAh SAoS JSoi OSidS OHly
crop in this vicinity, maximum 40 bush
els per acre, and the average not to ex-
ceed 20 bushels per acre) we harvested a
crop of IS bushels per acre from strip
of ground that had been sub-soiled. The
potatoe crop was practically failure in
this vicinity; the result of our expert
ment was very good crop, about 125
bushels per acre.
"This season (IS94) the crop consists
of rye, oats, corn and potatoes Rye
harvested indicates yield of IS bushels
per acre, while rye in an adjoining field,
the same seed, planted and harvested,
will yield 10 bushels per acre. Oats on
land sub-soil plowed in the fall of 1898
will yield 40 to IS bushels per acre; oats
on land sub-soil plowed in the fall of
1902 will yield 80 to IS bushels per acre
(the average crop under the adverse con-
ditions that prevailed.) In each instance
the seed, soil and planting was identic-
ally the same. INV. Nesmith in Wau-
meta Breeze.