The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1910-09-07
$500 MORE A YEAR FARMING
HOW TO GET III.
BY Giving Better Preparation of the
Land for Oats and Wheat.
BY TAFT Butler.

Porbably more acres were sowed to
| oats last year, throughout our terri
| tory than ever before. This is par
States. Wheat was also sowed
| more generally than usual in some
parts of the South. Indeed wheat
| was sOwed last fall in parts of Louis
| none had been grown for many
years. AS a general rule the crops
| Of wheat and oats have been fairly
good, but the preparation and seed
| ing, especially of the oat lands, were
| not such as they should have been.
These small grain crops are not cul-
tivated after seeding and for that
| reason thorough cultivation of the
| land before sowing is essential to
good yields. In all cases it is cheap
er to cultivate a crop as far as pos
sible before it is planted, but in the
case of oats and wheat it is doubly
important to do this since it is the
| only cultivation which the crops can
| receive. There is another factor
| dependent upon our climate condi-
tions which renders the thorough
| and careful preparation of the land
] cially important in the cotton belt.
We would not be the wonderfully
| fine cotton producing country thar
| we are were it not for the usual Try
| weather Of September, October and
| November. This dry season is the
time for sowing wheat and oats, for
the spring oat is of little value and,
| Of course. no one thinks of sowing
wheat in the spring. We doubt,
however, if spring sowed wheat
| would be much more unsatisfactory
not SOW oats in the spring They do
| not pay and more feed will be Sc
| cured from some other crops, such
as millet and cowpeas. both of which
| may be grown on the land the same
season.
The preparation of the oat and
| wheat land is for fall seeding and the
usual dry weather at this time must
| be the main point kept in mind. If
| the oats and wheat are to follow u
| crop of cowpeas or soy beans and
the land was thoroughly broken
| when the legume was sowed we
would prefer that the land be not
rebroken unless it is done a consid-
erable time before seeding time. But
on the other hand if the breaking
can be done at the right time, we
would always, in this climate and
with our lands which are deficient
in humus. prefer to have the land
we'll broken for each crop. In fact
we would like it broken deeply and
pulverized most thoroughly; but this
is most difficult to accomplish and is
undesirable unless the breaking is
done at least a month before time
| to SOW the oats and wheat. If the
| land can be broken a month or more
| before seeding time we would pre-
| fer to proceed as follows: First, disk
| and crOss-disk the land before ploW-
| ing. If this be done, the trash or
weeds or other vegetable matter is
| cut up and can be plowed under
up, this trash will be less likely to
| prevent the land settling down SO as
to prevent drying out. The chief rea-
son for objecting to breaking the
land for fall seeding is that it may
be left too loose and open and thus
| dry out so there will not be sufficient
moisture left in the soil to germi-
nate the seed. A large amount Of
coarse grass. weeds or other trash,
that has not been cut up by disking
| favOrs this drying out process.
Another reason for the disking
| before breaking is that land that Is
too dry for breaking satisfactorily.
be broken with entire satisfaction
| after It is disked, even though the
| disks do not enter the ground but
a short distance. The dislilng and
| cross disking mark the land off in a
| manner similar to the scratching OF
the glass by the glass cutter. and
when the ground is broken 1t breaks
! along these disk lines and the Jumps