The Nashville globe. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1906-193?, 1913-08-01
CONSERVING MOISTURE AND
SOIL RECLAMATION.
BY Capt. T. F. Peck, Commissioner
of Agriculture.

Of Agriculture.
Abundant opportunity has been Of
fered this summer to convince any
one of the importance and value Of
moisture in the soil for crops while
they are growing.
Many people have been made to
realize the value of moisture and
have taken the necessary steps to
provide and conserve it.
Their crops now show the wisdom
of their action While the crops Of
cohfe of their neighbors have been
seriously injured by dry weather,
theirs have gone right along.
ANY one with ordinary intelligence
can do the things necessary to store
up the moisture. Break the land
deep. turn under vegetable matter
subsoil when breaking the land in the
fall When preparing the land in the
the spring, pulverize deep and thor
ough, KEEP a dust mulch on the sur
face by frequent thorough shallow
cultivation. You can do all this as
well as any other farmer, and when
you do, you will find that you have
taken a very decided step in the di-
rection of good and profitable farm
ing beeau in getting your soil in
right condition to hold moisture you
have got rid of your hardpan, you
have stopped your land from wash
ing, you have made it possible for not
only the rain but the air and frost
to penetrate the broken up subsoil
and thereby increase the available
plant food in your ground.
wish every farmer in Tennessee
would give more attention to his soil
and how to increase its producing ca
pacity. If he could be made to I'M
derstand that his soil only differs
from the subsoil below in that the
top soil has decayed vegetable mat
ter in it while the subsoil has not,
when sufficient vegetable matter is
added to the subsoil and the rain,
air and frost penetrate it, the subsoil
becomes as rich as the top soil ever
was That being true, we cannat al
ford to go on from year to year plow-
ing shallow, unfortunately using
expensive fertilizers of which onlp a
portion of the available plant food Is
used by the crop grown for the want
of moisture during the growing sea-
son. but is leached out by the winter
rains and carried away before an
other growing season because the
soil is not deep enough to hold the
moisture
Before we make the Roadway we
should in farming we have simply
got to make up our minds to cultivate
fewer acres and do it better. There
is every argument in favor of doing
so If you have more land than you
can cultivate right, better pasture it
and prevent its washing and only
cultivate as much as you can do JUS
tice to. The land pastured will bring
you something and that portion you
cultivate right will produce more
than all would have produced with
slipshod methods. Year by year you
will be able to increase your acre
age of cultivated land until you can
work out a rotation that will include
the entire area with some in corn,
some in wheat or oats, some in peas
or soy beans and some in clover to
go back into corn again.
The farmer who is a student OF
nature. who studies his soil, who
studies his crops, who gives attention
to his live stock, who can see and
appreciate the good and beautiful in
nature, will never be dissatisfied with