St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1900-04-14
PARIsH,lA, SATURDAY
tAkMEKAND PLANTER.
FIFTEEN INCHES OF SOIL.

FIFTEEN INCHES OF SOIL. d
advantages of Deep Tillage-lt Pats
the Soil I'm ConAitisn t. Re-
-. ceive ana Retain Moisture.
II your farm had Is inches of good,
rich, dark soil, how would you like it
We dare say we have not q single read
er Who would not be delighted with
snch farm. Wy? Because you would
then expect good crops. You would
expect to ind profit and pleasure in
farming. You would expect your work
to be easy. and all your crops to grow
rapidly and yield abundantly. You
would expect. every horse and mule to
De fat, every cow to give rich milk and
look contented. You would feel that
you could grow hogs and lambs, and
even yc'Ir chickens would rejoice in
peace and plenty. Why all this? Be
cause yop believe such a soil would
produce. and pay you for your work.
Such expectations would not be in
y
just. Experience has shown that such
soils do such things. Why? Because
they hold the rain water that falls
upon them. Hence they have plenty Of
moisture to- dissolve the plant food
needed by the growing crops. They
can also furnish the plants with plenty
of sap 10 carry on the work of build
ing up plant structure. They also fur
nish plenty of room for the plant
roots to grow in while hunting for
this supply of moisture and food.
The elements of plant food which
come from the soil are found to exist
in all soils in abundant quantities.
But for the larger part are insOluble.
In some fields and farms where wrong
methods have prevailed nearly all OF
then, are insoluble. Locked up" we
call it by the hardness of the soil.
Perhaps we should change that SEN
tcnce and not say soil. Such land is
destitute of soil properly defined. For
soil in its true sense means broken,
pulverized earth. ready to give up its
plant food. breaking up the crust of
the earth makes soil. Soil is just as
deep as this breaking-np, pulverizing,
has cones. Su5soil is where this stops.
The plant food constituents of soil
and subsoilareth the same. The solubili.y
or insolubility causes the difference,
and this depends upon the crushing or
pulverizing.
The soil is a manufs ctOry of plant
food. When properly broken to pieces,
the water, air and sunshine enter and
working together take insoluble ele-
ulents and make then soluble. Then.
when the seeds gerilinate and demand
food, the rootlets find it ready for their
use.
Fifteen inches of soil furnish an am
pic storehouse of this ready made
food. and an ample supply Of water to
transport it.
: Hence we are justified III saying that
you had a right to expect great things
from farm covered with Is inches of
soil. When you have this depth you
practically have; all the soil you need.
The hardpan does not often go 1eeper
than this. When through this you
have removed the grrat obstacle in the
way of high farming.
But many say how can we get these
Is inches of soil. We answer by
plcwing Is inches deep. You may
be able to do this at once. Most OF
YOU will not. You have been 20
to 100 years making the hardpan. You
will not be likely to unmake it in one
season.
In many farms you have no teams
thst can pull plows that deep the first
SET son. But you can begin. You can
plow eight or nine inches with two
goed teams following the teams with
srtsoiler.
Ey patience and perseverance Won
can get there. We do not say turn up
your land Is inches all at once
THIS is not necessary or desirable.
You need that which is best broken
and best aerated on top. But break
deep until you get Is inches of good
soil.
The best piece of work of this kind
we eser accomplished in one season
was done with a one horse plow in the
hands of a little boy just large enough
to hold the plow up, and just learning
to plow. And the only plow used was
q 2k. inch steel scooter. We had this
plow made Il inches long and
tempered and ground like an axe.
With this we went over once. Then
we added four inches of steel to tho
plow, tempered and ground it as be-
fore. With this we went over the field
again, across The first burrows. We got
16 inches thoroughly broken.
You can do this work, whether you
run one or two or four or more plows
The poor man has the same chance to
make. this Is inches of soil as the
rich man. And he needs it more than
the rich man.
II instead of skimming three to four
inehe. deep we should all go to work
and get our soil Is inches deer,
what would be the result. Can my
paint the picture of pros
perity and thrift that would fill Ill
this land. And yet such is the ease
with which this can be brought about
tina. we ought to go at it at once.
The south is unique in the shallow
ne. of her soil. All over the nor n
thcs began breaking up the soil with
two, four and six-horse plows. They
have continued this method, hence
tley have not only kept the original
of the soil, but added
sery much to it's fertility. We can do
the same. We can begin at once to
iectify the wrong we have done, and
prepare the way for future develop
nents.
Our soil is the equal of any section
,n an average. We only need to use
science and intelligence to keep up
Will the rest of the agricultural prog
'em.
We make our soil AZ deep as any
,art of the country had.when we plow
IS deep as they do. There is no Limit
Is our soil depth but the limit NC
make The soil will be as deep AZ 11r
,teaking let's it go. We have used Is
ncSes in this article simply as n