The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1904-06-28
CONDUCTED BY B. w. KILGoRE,
SOIL INVESTIGATIONS I'm THE SOUTH.
More Thorough Tilage ESSENTIAL Platter System
of General Cultivation Would Produce Better Re
suits and More Live Stock is Imperative1y Needed.


The latest yearbook of the United States De-
partment of Agriculture contains an article,
"Some Results of Investigations in Soil Man
agement," of especial interest to Southern farm
ers inasmuch as the Investigations referred to
were conducted in North Carolina, Virginia and
other Southern States. In Stunning up the con-
illusions reached, Mr.. King writes as follows:
The close structure and feeble granulation of
very many of the soils in the South, combined
with the heavy, intermittent character of the
rainfall, make 1T a matter of great Importance
for most intertilled crops like corn, cotton, and
potatoes that the fields receive frequent thorough
cultivation to a depth of three inches. This is
needed CD to lessen the bad effects of drought
by reducing surface evaporation; (2) to prevent
the plant food in solution being carried, by exces-
sive capillary rise, too near the surface, above
the zone of roots, and to obviate it's being left
by evaporation where the heavy rains will dis
solve it and carry it into the surface drainage;
60 to give better circulation of air in the soil,
which roots and soil organisms require; and, (A)
to allow more of every heavy rain at once to
enter the soil deeply, and thus lessen the loss of
fertility by surface washing.
Proper attention to these matters is more inn
perative in the South than in the North. because
Of the higher soil temperatures, which hasten
evaporation, and because of the lesser depths to
which the roots of crops penetrate the soils.
FAULTY METHODS OF CULTIVATION.
Some of the methods of cultivation practiced in
the South, while effective in killing weeds, are
not the best that could be used for the conserva-
ton of soil moisture or for controlling the move
ments of water-soluble salts in the soil, and are
often positively harmful to the crops growing up
on the ground. One of the methods to which
reference iS made is the common practice of
running the pillow close to the row, throwing the
earth away from the plants, and leaving the fur
rows open one or mole days. When this practice
is followed, if the crop has reached considerable
size, with ample leaf surface and strong root de-
velopment, aud if the weather is hot and drying
and the soil moisture at all scanty, the crop is
quite certain 10 show the bad effects of this meth
cd of cultivation, by the curling of the leaves, as
a result of cutting off all roots on the side of the
row to- the depths the pillow has run; and the in
jury is often so marked and great that it is dis
tinctly recognized that the cultivation must not be
done on both sides of the row on the same day.
The loose soil thrown into the middle of the row
soon loses most of it's moisture; the sides of the
furrow next to the row and the bottom also dry
out very rapidly in the hot sun, so thta when the
furrow is turned beck it S filled with a layer of
dry, loose earth, into which new roots must de-
velop to take the place of those cut away; and on
top of this layer of dry earth is deposited the
moist soil of the second furrow, which in turn
loses it's moisture rapidly, as does the firm surface
of the bottom of the new furrow. 1t often hap
mems that before new roots have had time to de-
velop into the loose soil formed by the blowing
the same operation is repeated on the opposite
side, and thus the crop receives a very severe
check to it's growth by the double root pruning
lii IL. 49, &C or1+1uo+ian 0Haofc