The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1898-03-08
ABOUT sUBsoILING.
The Right and the Wrong way-saving
Soil Moisture.

The Right and the Wrong Way-Savfng
Soil Moisture.
The beet sugar and sugar beet agita-
ton has brought the subject of subsoil-
ing to the front. "The capitalists who
are ready to put their money into sugar
factories insist that the beet growers
subsoil their land before engaging in
beet culture. It is we'll known, and the
experience of European beet sugar max
ers and beet growers testifles that sugar
beets are very sensitive to the influence
Of deficiency in moisture and under ad-
verse conditions in this respect will fail
to develop the percentage of saccharine
matter that is necessary for success in
sugar making. The main root and the
root fibers must have chance to reach
well down into stratum of perpetual
moisture. and this necessity has led to
the practice of subsoiling beet lands
OF course where the sugar beet is thus
benefited other crops will reap some
benefit also, and indeed there is
large proportion of our soils which it
would pay as we'll to subsoil, whether
we grow sugar beets or other crops"
The foregoing is from the pen of writ
or In Farm and Fireside, who has the
following to say concerning when to
subsoil and the saving of soil moisture:
There is a right way and wrong
way of subsoiling. Several of the ex-
pertinent stations have investigated the
subject. In most cases subsoiling when
done in the fall has proved decided
benefit, especially on soils resting on
hard and packed subsoil. The fall and
winter rains soak into the surface layer,
six, eight or ten inches Deep as the case
may be, but cannot enter the hard sub
soil, so that the excess of water runs off
the surface into bitches and streams
Then when this surface moisture has
evaporated during a dry spell in spring
or summer there is no further supply to
fall back on, and the crops must soon
suffer. Subsoiling deepens the natural
water reservoir and allows the water
otherwise allowed to run off to be stored
up In the subsoil as a reserve ready to
be drawn on when the rains fail us dur
ing the growing season.
A writer in one of the exchanges
sums up the difference between subsoil-
ing in the fall and doing it in spring,
as follows: eff this subsoil reservoir
be made in the fall, it will, like a por-
GUS sponge, soak full of water during
the winter and spring rains and from
melting SHOWS. But if subsoiling be de-
layed till spring it cannot be done till
the spring rains cease and the soil be-
comes dry enough to pillow, and then,
there being no water to soak down and
fill the spaces between the loose particles
of earth, air presses its way down and
absorbs what little moisture there is.
Thus it is that fall subsoiling catches
and stores water for next summers
drought, while spring subsoiling let's
In the air to dry out what little mois-
ture there is.
After having secured an increased
supply of moisture by subsoiling the
next problem is how to use it most
eoonomically-with least waste. The
waste is not only by evaporation from
the bare surface, but also by evapora~
ton from the leaves of plants "out of
place. !" The former is easily held
within lowest possible limits by thor
H.,
often been explained). The latter should
be entirely prevented by preventing all
weed growth and by timely thinning.
The Care of New Seeding.
1t requires time as we'll as plenty of
grass seed to make perfect sod that
shall cover the entire surface. Whoever
after the ground has once been frozen in
the fall shall examine the grass seeding
of the previous spring will be surprised
to find how little the soil is really COW
cred. Before the freezing came the fresh
leaves of grass seemed to make almost
perfect mat over the surface. But under
the touch of frost the whole plant ap-
pears to shrink to not more than a quar-
ter of it's original size. "This,' says
American Cultivator, "allows much
freezing of the surface soil, and many
of the grass roots are undoubtedly de-
stroyed, as the soil is alternately lifted
by freezing and falls back aagin when
ever the hold of the frost has relaxed.
"a mixture of clover and grass seed
helps to cover the surface much better
the first winter than grass can possibly
do alone. The clover will in such case
make spreading head that will cover
most Of the surface 1t, too, will show
the pinching of winters freezing, but
as the clover leaves are Drowned and
fall on the soil they cover the grass
roots with just the kind of fertilizing
mulch that is needed to make rapid
growth when springtime comes. The
clover will also start into growth quick
ly enough to check the weeds that are
pretty sure to get the advantage when
grass seed is sown alone in weedy soil "