The Estancia news. [volume] (Estancia, Torrance County, N.M.) 1904-1912, 1907-09-13
SCIENTIFIC FHRMING
bU Il. W. ChMPBELL
Lecture Delivered at Mountana August 20 by the Famous
Scientific Farmer

Would you break your soil deep or
shallow?
1t depends on what you call deep or
shallow. l would break about three
inches, then follow that with roller of
some kind to pack it down fiat. have
made the assertion great many times
that man could buy roller to roll 40
acres, and throwit away and make mon
ey on it. If rolled the ground will hold
the moisture and the sod will rot but
if left the moisture will evaporate from
the soil underneath and it will not rot.
Is it a good idea to disk the ground be-
fore it is broken?
That is something have never done,
but it is very consistent theory. 1t
would be a very good thing to disk it
early in the spring and then break it
later.
What would be the best to plant wheat
with?
Use the drill. If you work the ground
down solid as | have suggested then l
would prefer what is called close hill
shoe drill. That is drill that has a
sharp edge just as the runners of a
corn planter so it drops, the seed into a
little narrow crevice in solid soil with
the. surface loose.
Now it is not only question of pre-
serving the water but question of
utilizing and controlling it. If the soil
is fine and firm pack it as firmly as any
tools will pack it, then you have nearly
the ideal condition to permit the
soil to carry just the proper
amount of air and water which together
with heat and light contains the elements
that make the plants grow. Observa-
ton shows that the summer tilling seems
to develop a sustenance, for better
words we will call it bacteria. We will
illustrate it by referring to the way the
lady makes bread. She takes the water,
milk, cornmeal or flour, then takes dry
yeast dissolves it and puts it in. Now
if put in the refrigerator it would re-
main in that condition as long as it is
kept on ice, but as soon as put near the
stove it develops the bacteria which be-
gin to multiply and her dish is full. A
chemist went into the extreme west
ern part of the state and brought 60 odd
samples of soil back with him, which
upon careful investigation showed more
or less bacteria Its development de-
pends on the condition you get the soil
into. Now right there is where you
have to control the bacteria of the
ground. 1t is right there why we have
so many failures when the season was
not just right. Take for instance the
crop we wereferred to in Hitchcock County
grown almost entirely without rain and
making Al bushels per acre and testing
60 pounds when 80 per cent of all the
wheat put in 10000 acres was total
failure, shows there was condition
that was brought about that made that
wheat produce when the other could not
1t is the physical condition of the soil.
Don't spend any time studying chem
istry, but study the soil and the con
dition, that is necessary and that yot
can put the soil into that will enable il
to produce the elements that are nee
essary to make crops grow. It makes
little difference what kind of ploW
you use if the soil is in the proper con
dition when you plow it and you do the
proper thing after the blowing is done
The only argument that I have evel
heard in regard to plows is that yol
Continued on page four.).