The Clovis news. [volume] (Clovis, N.M.) 1907-1929, 1912-01-04

Habit Gomez From Humid States
Where it Rslrs often and Little
cultivation is Needed.

I"N I. ~ NNNNN"KN"|
We have been Watching the effects
of shallow plowing and disking for
nearly thirty years. and still w can
see no good in &C. Every dry year the
same thing happens In 1908 we went
over thousands of acres where the
crops had been disked in on gtubblo.
we saw oats burned out six and
eight inches high. spring wheat COM
pletely fred just beginning to head;
winter wheat that went only five bush
els to the acre. and fields Of corr on
shallow-plowed sod that yielded moth
ing but a handful of fodder.
The disking and shallow blowing
habits come from the humid states.
where It rains sometimes twice q
week and small crops can always be
raised by simply cultivating enough
To keep the weeds out
Farmers win sometimes say: I'VE
can raise more by disking than plow-
ing" This is true, because a SUR
face farmer seldom plows more than
three inches. and be can do this equal
ly well and more quickly with the
disk. or he may pillow without har-
rowing. let the ground dry out as he
goes, and plant In a poorly prepared
seed bed.
An old friend Of ours used to 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 second year. 1S
inches; and the third about a foot;
but # a dry year happened, there was
nothing doing. He always would per-
slst that he could raise good crops
without blowing to cary mis- cattle
through the winter. l happened to
meet him in 1905. Well I said,
how did you come out last year2'
"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 right
down and the dry farmers lost hcay-
fly.
Surprising we plant a crop of spring
wheat or oats on corn stubble. what
happens? Ninety per cent of the
farmers put cattle on the stubble
during the winter. The ground be.
comes hard and o~verpaoked; we disk
this on the surface and plant the seed.
For awhile it does splendidly. and If
the rains keep up viii make a fair
crop; but If dry weather comes and
a crust forms on the surface or un.
der the mulch. the crop is gone. for
it Is solid underneath. It has never
been plowed.
Il Is the surface farmers who are al
ways wailing about this crust under
the mulch, but those who belong to
the deep-plowing school pay no atten-
ton to it, for they still have plenty
Of room for the roots of their crops
down below. and If the mulch above
1.-The crust is in propeC shape there is
no more evaporation than there is be-
fore.
A man wrote to me once and asked
what he should do for the crust u Ter
the mulch. 1 wrote back .a. said:
Next year pillow deep" His answer
was: How did you find out that I
didn't pillow deep?"
The worst consequence Of disking
without blowing is the effect It has
on next years crop. The ground be
ing 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 ear
In dry farming. If we work only
for the present, we are living from
hand to mouth. The very foundation
Of this branch of agriculture is t.
farm for the future. Store up mois
tEfe In the soil next year and the
year after, keep track OF it with the
pick and shovel or with a ground
augur, and you will soon find out
which style of farming pays the best