The Elbert County tribune., 1907-05-09
WHY WE pLow AND CULTIVATE
The Real Reasons Why Those op-
erations Are Necessary.

Farming is very ancient business.
and tie plow in some form, whether
it be the forked stick or the triple
gang plow, is the Oldest of all agricul-
tural implements; but the question of
why we plow has never received the
consideration that 1t should have.
Until about 200 years ago the farm
er's idea of plowing was to get enough
loose soil to cover his crop, and thus
allow Il to germinate. Farmers in
that day, and, in fact, up to the time
of Jeth-o Tull, about $50 years ago,
did not seem to have any definite idea
as to how plants grow. That worthy,
whose name should be forever held
in grateful remembrance among good
farmers, had the idea that plants took
up minute particles of the soil itself.
He published volume after volume on
this subject, and while his practice
was invariably right and in fact quite
modern, his theories were all wrong,
just as in these modern times the
theories of many scientific farmers
are all right and their practice all
wrong; for 1t is a matter of history
that theory and practice do not al
ways work together, desirable as 1t is
that they should.
When farmers got hold of the idea
that plants take their food always
liquid and in solution, and do not live
on the soil itself except in this way,
it became quite clear that water is
one of the essential elements of plant
growth, and, therefore, that plowing
should be done for the purpose of put
ting the soil in such condition that
1t should have the greatest water
holding capacity, not the capacity OF
holding the greatest amount of water
between the particles, but of holding
a large amount of water in films
around the surface of the soil grains.
They soon discovered that the finer
the tilth and the greater the number
of soil grains. the more surface there
was, and. therefore. the greater the
water-holding capacity.
Studying the matter thoroughly,
they found, says Wallaces Farmer,
that there is seldom during the sum
mer season sufficient rainfall to sup
ply the wants of the crop. and hence
that it was necessary not merely to
plow deep and reduce the soil to
fine tilth, but to have the turned fur.
row in close capillary connection with
the subsoil below, in order that the
plants might draw up water from be-
low when there was a deficiency of It
coming from the clouds. This further
modified the theories of cultivation.
Then another step was made. Farm
ers began to realize that while tillage
was not manure. it was the next thing
to it. While it did not add any fer
tility to the soil. it rendered more
available the fertility already in the
soil, which cannot be wholly exhaust
ed by anything that man can do OF
fail to do. In other words, that the
soil is great chemical laboratory in
which the food of plants is prepared
and prepared largely in proportion to
the amount of intelligent tillage that lie
put upon 1t.
1t is only in recent years that this
idea has taken hold in the mind OF
the farmer, and even now only in the
minds of the most intelligent farmers
Such farmers are beginning to realize
that the water-holding capacity and,
SO to speak, the efficiency of the work.
ings of the chemical laboratory are
greatly increased by the addition of
vegetable matter; in other words;
that the mineral elements of the soil
cannot be brought into such shape as
to furnish food for plants except in
connection with decaying vegetable
matter.
The subject Of why we plow and
why We cultivate is a very large one.
ever new and interesting, opening up
wider vistas of thought than men who
simply plow because their fathers