The enterprise. [volume] (Harlem, Mont.) 1899-1926, 1912-06-27
Attend To The Fallow

Alfred Atkinson, noted agronomist
of the Montana Experiment Station,
writes as follows of the advantages
resulting from summer fallowing:
The practice of leaving the portion
of the farm which is to produce next
years crop, uncropped during the
present season is now very generally
followed by dry land farmers. Since
these fields yield no returns while
fallow. it is important to so handle
this land that the full advantage may
come with the succeeding CROP,
The chief advantages which result
from fallowing are:
The accumulation OF moisture, the
bringing into usable state of GER
tain amount of plant food in the soil,
and the opportunity to kill weeds
which may be present. If the meth
cd of fallow management on any
farm does not improve conditions
along these three lines, the practice
ought to be revised in some Of it's
particulars.
The first and most important bene-
fit to be sought is the accumulation
of the seasons rainfall. On the dry
farm, the moisture reservoir ought
to be stored to furnish the water
needed for a large yield the follow
ing year. In clay and loan soils, it
is easily possible to store seven or
eight inches of rainfall in the first
eight feet of the soil. This moisture,
along with the early summer rainfall,
practically insures good yield.
III order to prevent the loss of
moisture from Natures reservoir, Il
dam has been provided, in the soil
mulch. A loose, dry layer on the
surface prevents the water from
evaporating into the atmosphere.
When the land has been cultivated
and a mulch established, rain packs
down the surface and establishes
this contact with the lower layers
and the loss of water is made possi-
BILE as soon as drying begins. After
| each rainy period, and as soon as the
soil is dry enough to pulverize prop
erly the fallow should be given care
ful surface tillage. This stops the
less Of moisture, as it prevents it
from getting to the surface where it
can evaporate into the atmosphere.
TilIage ought to be promptly given.
| When the dam breaks, allowing the
water to escape from the storage res
eryoir, it is promptly repaired. The
surface mulch is the dry farmers
dam, and when it's usefulness has
been destroyed by being packed by
rains, it ought to be repaired by cul-
tivation as soon as it is in condition.
BY all means. carefully cultivate the
fallow at the close of the rainy sea-
son.
The fallow condition is ideal for
making available the plant food in
the soil. With ample moisture pres =
ent, we have all of the necessary
condtlons-heat, air and moisture,
and the organisms which make plant
food available are active. Conserve
the moisture in the fallow and so
insure the presence of ample ayaila-
BILE food to build neXt seasons crop.
The question of weeds is rapid y
coming to be a serious one on many
recently broken farms These pests
fail to get started on the native sod
but increase rapidly on cultivated
land. Frequent and thorough cult
vation is the most economic methoe
of killing the weeks. The young
plants are easily destroyed and where
they are killed when, small, there cal
be no increase from seed formation
Keep the weeds down in the fields
and look out for the weeds around