The Ward County independent. [volume] (Minot, Ward County, N.D.) 1902-1965, 1913-07-03
WATER IN THE SOIL
Continued from page ~

fore the School Directors Convention
in Mclean Co., tell about the very
serious problem the farmers in GER
tain old settled portions of Wisconsin
were up against. The lime in their
soil is exhausted and almost no crops
can be grown until the acidity is neu-
tralized by the application of tons of
lime to each acre. And the professor
called attention to the sweetness of
our subsoil, caused by the great guam
titles of soil placed here by the good
Lord tens Of thousands Of years ago;
also that we will never be troubled
as the Wisconsin people are.
This is good year, and now good
time to ascertain the difference be-
tween deep and shallow blowing.
Just 60 into any field that has been
cropped for six or eight years and
has never been plowed deeper that 4
or inches. Take spade and uncov-
er space about 2 feet square down
to the unplowed part, and you will find
a crust so hard you can't drive a
crowbar into it. This crust or pillow
pan, has been formed from the pillow
pressure and from the horses walking
on it. After a "dry spell' it is al
most as hard as cement.
Now, without going into the dag
nosis of this matter, scientific or 9TH
erwise, the root of the wheat, or
whatever crop it may be, cannot get
through this crust into the surface
moisture.
1t has been generally assumed that
the upward movement of water in the
soil furnishes to growing plants a
large amount Of water taken from
parts of the subsoil beyond the reach
of the roots.
My experience and observation is
that when the subsoil moisture is de-
pleted down to a certain point, and
even when there is still lots of water
there-at least it is away beyond the
microscopic point, there is little, if
any, movement upwards or any other
way. However, the more water in the
subsoil the smaller the amount of
freewater it takes to start the mach
inery of capilarity in motion. What
does happen is this: When land is
plowed so deep that you cannot tell
where the furrow slice ends and the
subsoil begins-(th would be about
8 inches there is no crust, and the
roots 60 down into the subsoil after
the moisture. The roots of wheat
the fine hair roots even-go down 4
and and 6 feet, SO you can see the
object in having your land plowed so
deep that the roots will not be stop
ped in their downward passage for
moisture.
One encouraging sign Of better
work this year is the comparatively
large amount of crop that has been
narrowed in season-both to kill
weeds and conserve moisture.
took one man out into his own
field, few days ago, before the rain
Of June Goth, and showed him just
what cracks in the soil do.
In this particular instance we found
more than q dozen places within .
small area where the roots were brok-
en-, for, of course, they cannot run
across an open space.
The more clay soil contained and the
wetter it has been the bigger the
cracks will be.
Small cracks form on all clay and
loan soils after q rain-hence the OBJ
ject Of narrowing and breaking the
crust as soon after . rain as you can
get on the field and not have the dirt
stick to the harrow teeth.
The reason that soil cracks is that
it expands on taking In water and
shrinks when the water evaporates.
A good illustration Of this principle