The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1911-03-08
REASONS FOR EARLY FLOWING.
When the Grain to Be Planted Il
Corn.

When the Grain to Be Planted Is
Corn.
The great majority Of our readers win
do well to pillow land for corn just as
soon as it IS dry enough to 20 on to
with a team writes T. b. Terry in the
Practical Farmer Then, when the
plowed land has dried OFF so horses will
not pack it unduly. the surface should
be narrowed over This puts the land
into shape so one can prevent an ex-
cessive evaporation OF water from the
soil and subsoil When sod land, or
stubble, il left for weeks in the spring
to dry out in the sun and wind. from
the surface If 1t does not rain enough
to make good the loss, water will be
drawn up from below to do it. Then
this will eYaporate and more yet come
up. and so on. The result is often 4
large loss of soil moisture that is bad
" needed by the crop later on in the
season. Land should be drained, nat
urally or with tiles, to take out sur
plus water that would become stagnant.
And then it Is always well to have the
earth for some distance down saturat-
ed with water to the utmost degree.
Now where you pillow very early, as
soon as The land is dry enough, capil-
larry action is largely broken off by
the turned burrows. There is some
thing of a break between burrows and
solid land below, so water does not rise
steadily. Thus one prevents waste of
subsoil moisture. And keeping surface
freshly stirred whenever the soil be-
comes dry will check evaporation from
that
The soil you are preparing for corn
contains large quantities Of the mate
rails from which available plant food is
made. These materials are in an inert
condition largely. Nature, by action of
frost. sun, rain. etc, renders small
quantity ready for plants to use each
season; more some years than others.
Now man, with our present knowledge,
can easily make considerable more OF
these inert materials ready for crops
to use. This can be done by means if
tillage. After blowing early do not let
the surface at any time dry up hard
and crust form, Stir il with some
tools as soon az dry enough after every
shower or wet spell. And pulverize the
iUmDH. DO al Tue NuEk NAtH the lAHQ
is dry, unless it is very sandy. To IL
lustrate, we can pillow our land about
the first Of April, The latter part OF
Nav Is usually soon enough to plant
corn. This gives six or seven weeks for
spring following Of the land. would
try to work 1t thoroughly at least once
week. on the average. Thus air will
get into soil better, more of il will
be exposed to the action Of the sun
and new particles will be brought in
contact with each other. All of these
tend to make more plant food ready
for the crop. Better be little late
putting in corn on thoroughly prepared
land than early on poorly prepared
There is little land plowed for corn
now that does not have q good many
weed seeds in IT, This spring fallow,
thoroughly carried out, vii cause many
Of these to sprout and the young plants
will be killed in the seed leaf. or be-
fore. This is an important point It
takes food and water to grow weeds
Better save them for the corn and have
larger yield. One who is working
faithfully for q purpose can almost