The silver messenger., 1912-02-20
GREAT DANGERS IN DIskINc
Habit Comes From Humid States
Where It Rains Often and Little
Cultivation 10 Needed.
(By f. r. PARSON)

II.
We have been watching the effects
Of shallow plowing and disking for
nearly thirty years, and still we can
see no good in It, Every dry year the
same thing happens. In 1908 We went
over thousands of acres where the
crops had been disked In on stubble.
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 corn on
shallow-plowed sod that yielded moth
ing but handful of fodder.
The disking and shallow plowing
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 sur
face farmer seldom plows more than
three inches, and he can do this equal
ly we'll and more quickly with the
disk. Or he may plow 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 foot;
but II dry year happened, there was
nothing doing. He always would per-
sist that he could raise good crops
without blowing to cary his cattle
through the winter. l happened to
meet him in 1909. WELL" I said,
"how did you 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 right
down and the dry farmers lost heav-
lily.
Supposing we plant crop of spring
wheat or oats on corn stubhle. what
happens? Ninety per cent. of the
farmers put cattle on the stubble
during the winter. The ground be-
comes hard and overpacked; we disk
this on the surface and plant the seed.
For awhile it does splendidly, and If
the rains keep up will make 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. 1t has never
been plOwed.
1t 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.
tion 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 is be-
fore.
what he should do for the crust under
the mulch. l wrote back and said:
Next year plow deep" His answer
was: How did you find out that !
didn't plow deep?"
The worst consequence of disking
without plowing 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 or Nothing is saved
for next year.
In dry farming. II we work onlv
for the present we are living from
hand to mouth. The very foundation
OF this branch of agriculture is to
farm for the future. Store up mois-
ture 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