The Raymer enterprise., 1910-11-24
CRUST UNDER MULCH
Nothing Can Prevent Formation if
Drouth Lasts Long.
Cannot Be Broken Up Without De-
stroyins Crop, but Can Be Rem.
dered Harmless by Right
Kind Of Flowing.

Every dry year some one asks:
What can we do when a crust forms
under mulch?
Nothing can prevent this crust
forming If the drouth lasts long
enough, writes E. R. Parsons in Dry
Farming Bulletin.
The top inch Of the mulch dries
first. then the second. then the third,
and then the inevitable crust begins
to form underneath and becomes
thicker and thicker with every day of
drouth.
We cannot break up this crust with.
out destroying the crop. but we can
render this crust perfectly harmless
by the right kind Of blowing. and that
Is all that is necessary.
The formation of this crust depends
on two different factors. the drouth
about and the moisture conditions be-
low.
People sometimes talk and write in
magazines about the dry farmer max.
Ing cistern for moisture and putting
the lid on and so forth, as II he had
all the water he could handle, but the
fact Of the matter Is we can wet up
our land by conserving moisture to a
certain percentage to a certain limit
only, which is determined by the cap
illarity of the soil III question, and
above that limit, which is more or
less constant. 1t Is impossible to raise
1t as long as there Is dry subsoil
below. which is the true condition of
the dry farm soil. What mean Is
this: When a storm comes the water
goes down by capillarity or gravity. or
both combined, until 1t is too diifused
to 60 any further; capillarity ceases
for the time being until another storm
comes and starts 1t again; then 1t
goes down again until 1t stops for lack
Of water. Now. II we make test Of
this soil for moisture day or SO after
storm. when capillarity has ceased
working. we find we have no more
moisture in the soil than we had be.
fore, the percentage is the same, but
1t has gone down further. We are OBJ.
tanning greater depth OF moist
ground.
Some farmers pillow shallow. owing
to misconceptlon OF this action Of
moisture. They expect the moisture
to rise by capillarity to moisten their
crust and hold the drouth at bay.
when capillarity is already exhausted
by the downward pull of gravity.
After making several hundred tests
in all varieties Of soil during the last
30 years. have been unwillingly
forced to the inevitable conclusion
that capillarity as help to the dry
farmer is bringing up moisture from
the subsoil to the roots of his crops
is negligible quantity on true dry
farm land that Is not sub-irrigated
We all allow, however, that capillar.
ity works very strongly sometimes for
few days on the top three or four
inches after wet weather, before the
moisture has diffused downward, and
we can make use of this knowledge
for seed termination, by using the
press drill, which will draw the mois.
ture to the packed seed rows. with
out packing and baking the whole
field.
Since the moisture does not rise to
moisten our crust except very slight.
ly by distillation. it is clear that the
best thing we can do is to go down
after the moisture. The only way to
do this is to pillow deeply, not any six
or seven inches, but eight. nine, ten
or twelve.