Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1909-06-18

early, several weeks or months pre-
vious to planting, and depending on
the rains, occasional surfaee-tillage
and the natural settling of the soil to
secure the /" ideal" seed-bed.
3. Finally, in order that the water
which is drawn up again toward the
surface may not reach the air and be
wasted by evaporation, the upper. two
or three inches of the soil should be
kept mellow in the form of sod
mulch, and this is accomplished in
the growing of crops by frequent eul-
=. a on.
-1sthol Of Preparing the Seeded.
When wheat follows wheat or some
other grain crop suitable seed-bed
may be prepared by blowing early, as
soon after harvest as possible. and the
fields should be cultivated with a har-
row or disk at intervals until seeding
tire in order to firm the soil, conserve
the soil moisture and destroy the
weeds.
When the blowing is done just pre-
vious to sowing it is we'll to follow the
plow with the subsurfaee packer and
harrow in order to pulver;ze and
the soil at the bottom of the furroy
and leave a mellow, even surface.
This packing and pulverizing of the
furrow slice is especially necessary
when the soil is plOwed dry or when
stubble, trash or manure are plOwed
under, because if the furrow-sliee is
left loose and unpuIverized the cap
Hilary connection of the soil with the
subsOil is Il gely broken off and the
. soil mOist1Ia will not rise into the
surface soil to supply the terminating
seed and feed the roots of the young
plants; hence the seed fails to ger
inmate well or the plant is often
/ stunted in growth, and in such a seed.
, bed the crop is apt to 'freeze out
, or "burn out" Because of these re-
? suits it is not safe to pillow under
/ COARSE manure or heavy growth Of
, weeds or stubble in preparing a seed
, bed for wheaton other small grains OIL
grasses.
+ 1t is often a good plan to disk thu
ground previous to blowing. L
: plowed at once the loose ssurface j,
S in better shape to more readily con
. meet and reunite with the subsoi
D if the blowing is delayed the groun,
: will remain in good condition fO
n when the furrow-slice is inverted, ant
o blowing for much longer period dur
ing dry weather than land which ha
v received no cultivation. 1t may oftel
be advisable to practice early diskini
d rather than early blowing where bot
t cannot be accomplished. The surfac
e mulch of soil produced by disking no
g only retains the water in the soil bu
h offers favorable surface to abosr
e the rains.
81 A new method of preparing til
le seed-bed for wheat is now coming int
l. practice in western Kansas. The pla
a. is to list the ground with an ordinar
~ corn lister as soon after harvest a
possible. The lister burrows are ru
about three to three and a half fee
apart, very much the same as whe
the lister is used for planting corr
Later, when the weeds have starte,
the soil is worked back into the hste
furrOw by means of a disk-harrow {
disk-sled.
In dry climate this method of pr,
pairing the seed-bed may have sewers
advantages as follows: (1) The Gu
: tivation of the land soon after ha
vest tends to conserve the mOistm
already stored in the soil; ~ Il
furrOwed land is in good condition
catch and store the rain, and the lat
cultivation clears the land of weet
and leaves mellow soil mulch
conserve the moisture already store
in the subsoil; (3) the early and CO..
tinued cultivation of the soil favo
the action of the bacteria and the d
velopment of available plant-food.