American Falls press. [volume] (American Falls, Idaho) 1907-1937, 1911-08-31
DANGERS OF DIsKINe
Expert Tells Of Practices to Be
Avoided.
Foundation Of Dry Farming 10 to
Farm for the Future-store Up
Moisture In Soil for the
Next Year.

We have been watching the effect
Of shallow blowing and disking TO
nearly thirty years. and still we ca,
see no good In 1t. Every dry yea,
the same thing happens. In 1908 W,
went over thousands of acres where
the crops had been disked In on stub
BILE. We saw oats burned out 81,
and eight inches high; spring whea,
completely fired just beginning to
head; winter wheat that went only
five bushels to the acre; and fields of
corn on shallow-plowed sod that Weld.
ed nothing but a handful of fodder
writes e. r.. Parsons. a dry farm ex.
pert, In ar exchange.
h disking and shallow blowing
habits come from the humid states.
where 1t rains sometimes twice a
week. and small crops can always be
raised BY simply %cultivating enough
to keep the weeds out.
Farmers will sometimes say, I'VE
can raise more by disking than plow-
ing. This is true, because a surface
farmer seldom plows more than three
inches, and he can do this equally
well and more quickly with the disk.
Or he may pillow without narrowing,
let the ground dry out as he goes, and
plant In a poorly prepared seed bed.
An DC friend of ours used t raise
Indifferent crops by blowing once in
three years and disking In his seeds
the two Intervening years. The first
year his oats would be about two to
three feet high; the seond year IS
inches; and the third, about a foot;
but If a dry year happened, there was
nothing doing. He always would per-
sist that he could raise good crops
without blowing to carry his cattle
through the winter. l happened to
meet him in 1909. We'll" said.
how did o come out last year,"
oh" he said. Il sold my cattle"
Thousands Of head of cattle were
sold in the fall of 1908 for the same
reason. This put the market down
adm the dry-farmers lost heavily.
Supposing we plant a crop OF spring
wheat or oats on corn stubble, what
happens? Ninety per cent of the
farmers put cattle on stubble during
the winter. The ground becomes hard
and overpacked; we disk this on the
surface and plant the seed. For a
while 1t does splendidly, and if the
rains keep up will make a fair crop;
but If dry weather comes and a'crust
forms on the surface or under the
mulch, the crop is gone, for 1t Is solid
underneath. 1t has never been
plowed!
1t is the surface farmers who are
always wailing about this crust under
the mulch, but those who belong to
the d~eep-plowins school pay no atten-
ton to 1t, for they still have plenty
OF room for the roots of their crops
down below. and If the mulch above
the crust Is in proper shape there is
no more evaporation than there was
before.
A man wrote to me once and asked
what ne should do for the crust under
the mulch. wrote back and said:
Next year plow Deep" His answer
was: How did you find out that
didn't pillow deep?"
The worst consequence Of disking
without blowing is the effect it has
on next years crop. The ground be-
hard, the water penetrates very
little; the available moisture is used
up by the crop. and the surplus evap-
crates or runs off. Nothing is saved
for next year.
In dry-farming, If we work only for
the present. we are living from hand
70 mouth. The very foundation of this
branch OF agriculture is to farm for
tne future. Store up moisture in. the
SOIL for next year and the year after,
keep track of 1t with the pick and
novel or with a ground anger, and
you VIII soon find out which style of