Milford chronicle., 1909-09-24


field should be disked before It is
plowed This will provide for layer
Of fine dirt in the bottom Of the fur
row, which will pack down closely
and help to restore capillarity.
II the furrow turns up shiny" or
shows any tendency to bake into clods
It should be narrowed every half day
or every day at least. This seems like
a great deal Of extra work, but If
harrow is kept in the field it does not
take long to hitch on to It and go over
the newly plowed strip just before
| quitting for noon or night few
minutes spent in narrowing at such
times will pulverlze the ground more
than hours OF work after it has be-
come dry and baked
The fall blowing will usually need to
be gone over with the disk to get it in
shape for planting. The superior con-
dition obtained by double disking-
that is, letting the disk Zap half"-will
more than pay for the extra labor.
There is an additional advantage in
that the surface is left smooth. Disk
ing spring plOwing is seld IN neces-
sary.
In cases where improper plowing has
left field cloddy the roller may often
be used to advantage. A corrugated
roller is better for this purpose than
smooth one as it tends to crush the
clods rather than to simply push them
down into the finer dirt A home |
made 'planker' or clod crusher will |
often answer the purpose as well as a |
roller
The roller packs the ground consid-
erably and so qulckeus the capillary /
rise Of water. If the surface IS left .
smooth much OF the moisture that
comes up will be lost by evaporation,
and later in the season the crop will
be likely to suffer from drought. To
avoid this the roller should be follow
ed Immediately by the harrow.
This loosens thin layer Of surfacc4
soil When the capillary water reach
es this loose layer its rise is checked
and comparatively little is lost by evap-
oration For this same reason it is
DAAEAA well W AbAAUN AeAl lllbN AuG as
soon as it is dry enough in the spring,
if disking is not to be done
until late
After the ground is plowed and disk
ed the harrow must be used to COM
plete the preparation for planting.
There are many kinds of harrows, but
none that are better than the ordinary
~, oil
styles and sizes. The harrow is eco
lomical to use. since it gets over
ground so rapidly. The best time to !
harrow in order to pulverize the soil is
after light shower The !
title clods will then be softened and :
will be easily knocked to pieces. To
Kill weeds, however. it is better to wait
Until the soil is little drier, as har- 2
owing wet field VIII transplant the I
weeds rather than destroy them. {
Do not be afraid to harrow too much.
so work that you can put on field
,ays better. No other implement will
Kill as many weeds in SO short time. '
md no other machine will tear clods to
,ieces so rapidly. A field well plowed
tAAu nAoANu anu AAhlANM tlA uAAAlA IL ln III ]
is fine tith as It is possible to make It
s an ideal seed bed. Seed planted in
uch a soil will start under the most
avOrable conditions. If the seed itself Il
S strong and the after treatment what
should be. a maximum crop may be
expected
Not all fields need to be plowed be- c.
,wo e.. In, . l.
ractice in the corn belt to SOW small
rain on stalk fields without any pre- d
iOus preparation. Experiments have
hown that small grain does not yield
nough more on plOwed corn stalk !
round to pay the cost Of plowing. Il
cry frequently they do not yield as s.
much. Where small grain follows 81
mall grain. however, plowing is nee 4
ssary to kill weeds and loosen the r
lrface soil. It does not need to be d
Dosened as deeply as for corn, how T.
yer. since the small grain plants are
ardier than corn and the roots are -
lore aggressive in pushing through a
ard soil.
While plOwing stalk ground is un-
it will usually be found
'Oftable to disk the land before seed d
g. This chops up the cornstalks Ia
I'd provides a mellow layer Of soil ~ ~
r the seed to germinate in. ha
Where the oOts'are to be put in with n
drill the ground should be double
sked previously. If sOwn broadcast co
sh