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

profitable limit between times of this
deeper tillage."
This kind of subsofling, it will be OBJ
served, is not bringing the under soil to
the surface by degrees by blowing half
an inch deeper every year.
The spring, summer and yearly rainfall
should be noted, IS fully equal to the
measurements recorded inthe longitude of
Iowa, and the nature of its soil is sub
stantially the same as in the adjoining
states at the eastward. Secretary Coburn
is one who is not likely to be carried away
by fad or fanciful theory, and the fore
going indicates that he is an ardent ad-
vocate of subsoiling in the state of Kan
Sas as a whole, and not for western Kan
saS, and that his advocacy is based upon
experience and observation. Nor in this
is he by any means solitary among intel
ligent men who have taken note of prac-
teal farming, either at the west or east.
The philosophy of subsoiling is easily
understood. The subsoil plow pulverizes
but does not raise to the surface the more
compact lower soil and renders it Suffl-
GENTLY fine for the entrance of roots.
Many plants will send down roots to the
depth of eighteen inches to two feet, or
even more if the subsoil is sufficiently
loose to allow their entrance Every ski
full gardener and fruit grower understands
this thoroughly, and the fact that it is
a necessity for successful gardening and
horticulture would seem to imply that 1t
may be made profitable in general farm
ing. When agriculture has reached the
intensive stage the fields on which the
staple crops are grown will be as fertile,
friable and deeply titled as are the best
gardens of the present day. 1t needs no
argument TO sustain the proposition that
a garden soil looSened to a depth of two
feet is more productive than a field soil
stirred only to the depth of six inches.
Furthermore, in those sections that are
liable to the visitation of drouths or floods
there is the greater need of placing the
soil in the best possible condition to with
stand either extreme. That is what sub
soiling will do, under the direction Of an
intelligent, practical farmer, by enlarging
the capacity of the land to retain mois-
ture, which, by suitable surface tilling,
may be largely prevented from evaporat-
ing except through the plant foliage in the
progress of growth In this connection
we note that Farmers Bulletin No. 20, on
claim Them issued by the United States
department of agriculture, recommends
deep tillage and tile drainage as an effec-
tive preventive of loss of surface soil by
washing The bulletin says
"A field in a condition of fine filth to the
depth of ten inches will hold two inches of
rainfall and absorb it very readily, and
soil in such condition will suffer no sur
face washing from an ordinary rainfall.
This will also increase the store of mois-
ture held by the soil. which is of great
value in time of drouth.
Let it be understood, then. that subsoil-
ing is not raising the subsoil to the sur
face, either at once or gradually, and that
its greatest advantages are not obtained
by the enlargement of the capacity of po-
rous subsoils to hold water. but in the
creation of a reservoir for this purpose in
more impervious subsoils.