Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1895-07-12
SURFACE CULTIVATION.
Shallow Cultivation Advocated For Data
wheat, Sweet Potatoes and Corn.

Shallow Cultivation Advocated For Data
wheat. Sweet Potatoes and Corn.
During tho past ten years most OF the
farmers OF my acquaintance have learn
cd that they can grow much larger crops
Of oats with three inches Of the surface
soil made fine than to plow six or eight
inches deep | have practiced this meth
cd of putting in oats for p years ard
have grown much larger crops than for
merly, and have not had single failure,
while under the old way we had fro
quent failures. The foregoing IS from
the pen Of the successful farmer and
well known agricultural writer Waldo
f. Brown, who has the following TO say
in a communication 10 Prairie Farmer:
1t is "A great advantage to prepare the
seed bed for oats with an improved har-
row, for ono team Will put in as much
land in "A day as three teams Will 10
break the land and harrow and roll I'M
til it is fine. We often have but day
or two of fine weather at time in
March when the land Is dry enough to
work, aud when our clay upland gets
thoroughly saturated we often must
wait Il week or two before il dries SO as
TO be lit 10 work 1t Is a great advan
tage 10 adopt II speedy method, for usu-
ally early sown oats yield much more
than those sown late. usually first use
d disk harrow and then sow tho oats
and cross harrow with an Acme harrow,
which is the best implement to give
fine, level seed bed that / have ever
used.
| am told that this method Of putting
in oats is now almost universally adopt
ed, and that whenever one farmer begins
it in noighborhood IN few years all
the rest follow this plan. 1t Is now uni
versally acknowledged that "A shallow
seed bed produces the best wheat, and
wheat on such land endures the winter
better, and this was found out by OBJ
serving that where the horses turned on
the plowed land and tramped it so hard
that barely enough loose earth could be
had TO cover the seed with the crop
was better than on other parts Of tho
field The same Is true of sweet potatoes,
and this fact, which was discovered
from setting plants on hard trampod
land, has led to shallow blowing and
the making of small ridges for the crop,
and the result is a large increase in
yield and better shaped tubers.
l meet occasionally at the Institutes
man acknowledged by his noighbors to
be one Of the best corn growers Of the
locality, who claims that the same kind
Of a seed bed gives the best crop of corn.
and there Is an increasing number Of
farmers each year who have found that
shallow cultivation which stirs two
inches Of the surface soil in the cornleld
gives much better results than tearing
the roots Of the corn with plows that
run four 90 six inches deep.
In my Judgment, the implement which
will give perfect surface cultivation IN
the corntields Is yet 10 be invented, and
when it is we want it made SO that ii
Will cover these rows Of corn and enable
us to stir the soil on strip not less than
ten feet wide at each time through. Any
of the good wCoders Will do this 10 per.
lection on some soils and under favor
able conditions, but it Is not yet what
we want in the large cornfclds Of the
west. The reason We want 10 get over a
wide strip is that the best work is done III
the cornhcld soon after rain, when the
land Will crumblo at "a touch and the
weeds will be killed before they sec the
light l have no doubt that inventive
genius can give us such ~ implement,
or, if not one that will cultivate three
rows, at least two The Acme harrow
makes an ideal seed bed, and the prin-
ciplo Of slicing and turning the surface
soil ought to be applied in our cornfelds
in cultivating, and l sec no difficulty in
the way Of using the slicing cultivator
in the cultivation Of corn.