The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1899-12-29
Paper Read Before the Farmers
Institute at Kincaid, Kansas,
December Is, 1899.


stock in scientific farming, especially
in blowing, yet 1t is a fact that there
is room for great improvement in 30
common thing as blowing.
Why do we pillow?
A scientific answer would be-to
break up and re.arrange the soil par
tices, incorporate the humus or vege-
table matter in the soil, and properly
prepare the root zone for the quick
work OF the coil ferments and the
retention of moisture.
While the poorest JOB of plowing
answers the purpose to some extent,
yet IL is fact that a scientific job OF
blowing Will put at least one-third to
one half more available plant food
where it IL easily dissolved and made
available for the plant to live on.
When we set out a tree, we are
quite careful to do all we can to pro-
mote rapid growth of the tree, yet
tree will stand much more abuse and
neglect than the tender germ just
bursting out of seed and instantly at
the mercy OF its surroundings.
y A man came and borrowed my
ow-bar to set out hundred apple
trees with, which he did by making a
hole in the ground with the bar,
trimming off the roots aud showing
the tree stem down into the soil
Most of these trees lived, but their
growth has been poor as might be ex-
pected, yet this job of tree planting
that no one would be willing to pay
for, is in keeping with many jobs of
blowing where 1t is cut and cover,
skip and dodge, with no two con-
secutive burroughs alike in the field
A boy will hit a team a whack with
the whip and they will jump ahead
and jerk on the plow and IL will skip
almost out and skim along until the
boy has caught up, when he will rock
the pillow down eight inches or more
and by the time the team pulls this
load few feet, whack will go the
whip again and the performance lie
continued leaving large strips of soil
that lie never broken up by the pillow
and along comes the planter and
plants corn on this hard ground and
it will do no better than the apple
trees did.
/ saw another man set out trees and
he dug a hole in the soil with a sh owe
being very careful not to break up
any of the Jumps, placing them care
fully by themselves, then he set the
tree up in hole. and with great care
i, gently placed the hard clods down on
the roots using extreme care not to
break them so there would be all the
air spaces possible, then he put the
fine soil in the hole on top of the clods
very gently, being careful not to pres
il down any for fear he would expel
some of the air out or perhaps break
upa few clods, but finished up his
werk of setting out the tree by care
fully cOmbing the surface with an
iron rake, and this he called good
job.
Now how many farmers would pay
man for such work as this ? Would
they expect the best results from such
than a seed and this job is an exact
comparison in every particular to the
ordinary job of blowing and harrow
ing the soil, fitting 1t for growth OF
q crop from the seed.
In ordinary blowing, the hard sur
face that is one compact mass, Is
turned carefully down into the fur.
row just .the same as the man
placed the clods carefully on the roots
A sharp pillow Is used also a SHARP
cutter, in order to split the hard, com
pact soil up carefully 80 as to not de-
stroy the lamps, and the pillow In
turning them under cracks them VI
in large sections throwing fine soil OF
top of them, then when this soil II
combed with harrow the job is pro
nounced good.
AS matter of fact, this job repre-
sents the bulk of the blowing done
and 1t is an exact parallel with tn,
job done with the trees. No effor
has been made to prevent the hare
clods being gently turned down int,
the burrows where the root zone is
no attempt 10 made to crush them o
to exclude the surplus air, and per
haps the surface soil that is turned
under is a mass of clods from tn
footprints of cattle and horses. Tn
fine coil thrown up by the pillow /
smoothed over nicely with the har
row and the surface looks pleasant t
the eye, but what a condition thi
covers, where the roots grow an
must seek for their food. Jus
imagine seed terminating an
reaching lite tender rootlets ont int