Tulsa daily world. [volume] (Tulsa, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1905-1919, 1911-11-28
FARMER IS BUSY
With HIS PL0K
FIELDS ALL OVER THE STATE
ARE TURNED UNDER FOR
EARLY PLANTING.
MOISTURE IS conserved
Agriculturists Each Year Follow More
Closely Methods Employed i'm
the Older States.

That the farmers of Oklahoma are
this fall plowing more land for early
spring planting than ever before, is
the statement of scores of Tulsans,
whose business take them on fire.
quent trips by automobile and rail-
way in different parts Of the state.
Thousands of acres which have here
tofore been left lying with the stalk
and the stubble showing the winter
through. have been, and are being,
turned upside down that there may
be no delaying planting the coming
season.
AS soon as a crop is harvested the
land is being plowed in order to place
it in proper condition for the spring
planting. Fall and winter planting in
general is to a great extent a devel-
opment of the last ten years Of agri-
cultural progress and is due largely
to the activities of the scientific farm
ing contingent. Its benefits are based
upon the natural physical properties
of the soil and are said by soil chem
lists and experts to be far reaching in
their effects.
There is said to be ordinarily an
amount of rainfall in Oklahoma, suf-
ficient, even in the driest months for
all practical farming purposes. There
fore, the only problem aspect present
ed by the contingency of a summer
dry spell, such as occurred this year,
is not so much the securing of more
moisture, but the conservation of
what moisture exists. AS housekeep-
ers store water, in cisterns, during the
periods of greater precipitation and
use it at will for domestic purposes
through periods of drouth, so it is
contended that q judicious use of the
plow through the fall and winter
months converts the soil into one
extensive reservoir, where the mois-
ture of the winter precipitation is
conversed for the ourishing of the
tender plants through the hot months
Of the summer.
1t has the been the aim of the
board OF agriculture to impress upon
the minds of the farmers the import
ance of breaking and narrowing every
acre of ground in the fall they intend
planting next spring. II this is ac-
complished 1t will store up for sum-
mer use by the growing crops next
| season the equivalent of an addition
of 25 per cent to the rainfall OF those
months
The deep fall and winter plowing
propaganda has been for years one
of the cardinal features of the work
Of instruction conducted at the an
nual summer Institutes throughout
the state. Bushels Of tracts. bulletins
and pamphlets have been distributed
upon the subject. The wonderful sue
cess that crop production efforts at
the state experiment farm have at
tanned is said to be largely que to the
system of moisture conservation en-
gdndered by deep fall and winter
plowing. while the various district
and county farms are conducted up
on the application of the same scien-
tific principle. To such an extent has
this agricultural gospel of science and
practical common sense been spread
throughout Oklahoma that 1t Is fast
getting TO be the case that the far
mer who does not apply its provisions
is regarded as ultra conservative and
impractical In his methods by his
more progressive neighbors.
In order TO render more practically
efficient and uniform the extensive
work along this line that Is now be-
ing conducted by the farmers Of Ok
lahoma, the board Of agriculture. In