The Kenna record. (Kenna, Roosevelt County, N.M.) 190?-1924, 1912-04-05
PLOWS ON DRY FARMS
Disk Found to Be Preferable to
the MOldboard.
implement lie Frequently Used for
Flowing stubble Fields and Old
Land Generally-Deep Filling
Machine Introduced.

In humid areas about the only kind
OF plow that is extensively used is
the moldboard, but in dry areas that
does not hold good. The disk pillow
has a place in these and the same is
true OF the deep-tilling machine. The
moldboard plow is so well known and
also its specific uses, that they need
not be dwelt upon at this time
The disk pillow consists of one or
more large disks set at an angle that
VIII turn over the furrow slice, but
less perfectly than the moldboard
pillow. 1t has been found preferable
to the moldboard pillow when under
the following conditions: Cd In
heavy clay soils that are hard to plow
and that are more or less liable to be-
come sticky. (2) In blowing land
baked so hard with the sun that 1t Is
difficult to keep the moldboard pillow
in the soil. (3) In the first blowing
of sage brush land when the brush
is strong. (D In blowing stony land
which could not be plowed with the
moldboard pillow without much diff
Guilty. The disk pillow is frequently
used when blowing stubble land and
old land generally. 1t is lighter of
draft than the moldboard pillow. 1t
does not bury grass OF weeds so COM
pletely as the latter.
The deep-tilling machine is a pillow
with two disks. The one in front
cuts down to a certain depth and
turns the soil The one in the rear
cuts down more deeply and turns
from a lower stratum, inverting it,
in part at least, above the furrow
slice first inverted. Among the ad-
Gantages of this pillow are the follow
ing: (1l 1t is light of draft rela-
lively in proportion to the depth to
which 1t will pillow. (2) 1t may be
used in blowing ground when it is so
dry that it could not be plowed with
the moldboard pillow. (3) 1t makes it
possible to pillow the soil to any rea-
sonable depth. "a 1t aids material
ly in pulverizlng the soil which it
plows.
The deep-tiHing machine is of too
recent introduction to justify saying
very much as to the exact place that
1t will fill in the tillage Of dry
areas. This much is certain, that it
will fill an important place. The fact
that 1t will enable the farmer to go
down deeply into the soil without too
great an expenditure of power is a
great consideration, as deep blowing
in dry areas is generally all-import-
ant. But the ability to pillow deeply
even in dry areas brings along with
it the temptation to deepen the area
that is cultivated at too rapid a rate.
Deep blowing should be cautiously
done. In some instances it does not
matter much how deeply the pillow Is
sent down, even at first. In other in
stances, to go down into the soil and
bring much unreduced earth up to
the surface would greatly hinder
growth. This pillow renders excellent
service IN killing quack grass. 1t
buries it so deeply that 1t has but
small chance of coming up again, pro
viding an occasional disking follows
The only check ca such deep blowing
when killing quack is the effect that
raw soil brought up from below may
have upon production. In humid
areas, where quack grass grows best
this machine ought to have wide
use for this purpose alone.