The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-03-09
SUBsomING.

There is much recent discussion of the
question of sub-soiling. most of it being in
advocacy of this method for the treat
ment of land, with now and then a dis
cordant note of opposition. One author
ity," claiming to be in especial touch with
the farmers of Iowa, states that the the
DRY of subsoiling is to loosen the under
soil and bring it to the surface by de-
grees by blowing half an inch deeper ev-
cry year. This is d wholly incorrect
statement, says the Western Farm Jour-
nal The theory, as presented by modern
advocates of subsoiling, does not imply
the lifting of the subsoi to the surface,
either at once or by half inches. In fact,
shallow surface blowing and deep sub
Soiling are counterpartS of the same sys-
tenn. The same authority declares that
if it were farming in western Nebraska
and Kansas, or in any other dry country
with a porous subsoil, it would use the
Subsoil plow, not, however, for the pur-
pose of deepening the available soil, but
to crea tie a reservoir to hold the spring
rains, and thus provide moisture for the
coming crops; but in Iowa and sections
east of the dried localities named it is
argued the conditions are different, and,
hence, SubSoiling is not necessary. The
logical mind would reach a conclusion the
reverse of this, namely, that the more
porous subsoil would have less need of
stirring TO increase its poroSity, and thus
enlarge the reservoir to hold spring rains,
and practical experience has demon
strated the correctness of this conclusion
which the logical mind would attain, and
has demonstrated that IN sections where
the subsoil is tenacious and impervious,
there the greater is the benefit derived
from subsoil blowing. If we were farm
ing in any portion of Kansas or Nebraska
where farming is in any way profitable,
we should keep a good subsoil pillow, and
would use it in all fields where the sub
soil conditions needed to be made more
the retention of moisture. But an ounce
of fact, attested by experience, is worth
more than a pound of theory. A recent
issue Of the Topeka Capital contains an
article entitled 'SubSoiling Pays" which
is so pat that we make liberal extract
therefrom:
an spite of his faith in the possibilities
of irrigation as a helpful factor in the
agricultural advancement of Kansas, in
the direction of smaller holdings, higher
farming and comfortable home making,
Secretary Coburn of the state board of
agriculture thinks subsoiling is line of
work from which Kansas farmers, con-
ssdering the state as whole, have reason
to expect the largest aggregate returns,
cost considered. That is by all odds the
most available substitute for irrigation,
where the latter for any cause is not
practicable and is worthy of careful study
and intelligent practice, he modestly pro-
claims as a part of his gospel; not that he
regards it by any means as likely to be a
ture is heir, but is yet a habit worthy of
hearty encouragement Yesterday, in
company with H. r. Hilton, h. w. Long
shore and w. W. Wick, he was on a tour
of inspection to the farm of Scott Kelsey,
east of the city, where subsoiling has
been extensively practiced by the owner
for the past six years with very crafty
ing results. Mr.. Kelsey has one tract of
thirty acres. that was plowed and sub
soiled to depth of twenty inches in the
fall of 1890 and again in the spring of 1893,
which gave a yield of eighty-five bushels
of corn per acre in 1893, and the same
tract produced sixty-five bushels per acre
in 1894. He also has another tract of
twenty-eight acres, SUBSIDIZED in the fall of
1892 and also again in the fall of 1898, that
was planted in potatoes and gave a yield
of one hundred bushels per acre in 1894.
The land was sown to millet after the po-
tato crop was laid by and produced one
and half tons per acre. while land in the
same Held, not subsoiled, but of the same
quality and sown at the same time. failed
to produce anything The farm consists of
1S7 acres and its owner intends hereafter
to Subsoil about one-third of it each year.
his observations leading to the conclusion
that three years is approximately the