St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1904-01-02
FARMER AND PLANTER.
FLOWING IN THE FALL.
Many Advantages In Flowing Land
Late I'm the Fall In Readiness
for Spring Crops.

mere are many advantages in plOw
Ing land late in the fall for the spring
crops. If the deepening of the plowins
and the subsoiling of the land is the OBJ
]ect. 1t can be better done then than al
any other time, for the subsoil is sell
dom in state that admits of the use
or the subsoil pillow in the early spring
Whether subsoiling will be of advan.
tage or not will depend on the nature
OF the soil. A fiat, heavy clay soil that
needs drainage will never pay for sub
selling. A deep, sandy soil does not
need it. But high, rolling land which
is inclined to wash into gullies, and has
q hard clay subsoil right below the
or linary run of the ploW, will be i'm
mensely improved by deep loosening
OF this subsoil The red clay uplands
Of the south have washed into gulltes
because they have been plowed shall
low, and when the torrential rains OF
the south fall the shallow plowed soil
soon becomes of a creamy texture and
the only place for it to go is down hill.
And down hill it goes, leaving the red
subsoil bare and forming a gall that
soon deepens into a gully. But If the
| soil is more deeply plowed, and the
subsoiler follows, loosening the clay to
a depth of Is or more inches, there lis
a body of loose soil that will take up
the hardest rain without moving. Then,
If we add to this shallow and flat cul-
ture during the growing season, We
form no burrows to gather head of
water to break over and go down hill.
Shallow blowing and constant clean
culture in hoed crops have made ter
race banks necessary In the southern
uplands, and at times the rain is SO
heavy that the terraces fill and over
flow and do more damage than if there
were no terraces. With deep breaking,
subsoiling and fiat cultivation which
would give no chance for head of
water to gather, there would be no
need for terraces, for we believe that
the terraces have caused more gullies
than they have prevented.
But there AZ , limitations to the value
of the fall blowing. In the far north,
where the ground remains frozen all
winter and snow covers the land, the
deep fall blowing can be made to mel
low the land finely for the spring
planting without any replowing in the
spring, and thus much labor can be
saved in the busy season. But in the
middle states, where there is alternate
freezing and thawing, and snow dis
appears at times, and in the south,
where freezing at night generally
t. 1ws the next day, and there is far
more rain than snow, the leaving OF
the plowed land bare all winter will
result in a great teaching of nitrates
from the land. Hence, while the fall
blowing and subsoiling will be of
great advantage, they should always be
accompanied with the sowing of some
winter cover crop like rye or wheat or
crimson clover, that will be at hand
to catch the feeting nitrogen, and save
II in the form Of organic matter to re-
turn it to the soil in the spring. This,
of course, involves the additional labor
OF replowing in the spring, but it will
be labor we'll expended, and in the
longer seasons Of the south there is not
the same need for spring hurry as there
is in the north. Fall blowing, then, we
think, should be practiced everywhere, |
except on deep, sandy soils, but we
should always take our climatic condi- |
tons into consideration. The bare cot
ton fields of the south have lost nearly |
as much of fertility in the water rains |
as they have in the growing of crops. |
Fau blowing, like other farm practices,
needs m admixture of brains with it,
prnnffrnl Earma.