Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1913-11-11

RESULTS DEPEND ON SOIL AND OTHER
CONDITIONS.

tn6f6 are eWO O6n6utS expeCI6u iIOLn
deep blowing. One is that making the
soil soft and porous to greater depth
enables 1t to absorb more OF the rain and
snow water and to retain 1t longer fol
the benefit Of the crop grown upon It,
The other is that making 1t mellow To-
greater depth will permit the roots oi
plants to push down easily to a greater
depth to obtain moisture and fertility
that had escaped beyond the reach OF
shallow rooted plants.
At an agricultural fair In Towanda
Horace Greeley said in his address: 1T
is benefi, to have the ground meliowed
to greater depth than it is usually plow-
ed, and to do this without throwing the
subsoil to the surface subsOil plow is
used to follow in the furrow of the com
mon plow to loosen it up and leave 1t iu
it's place to be covered by the next fur
row of the turning plow. I do not see
any subsoil plows exhibited here, but l
think farmers should give them trial. "
Peter Younger of Geneva, N. Y, wrote
as follows: 1.-THE ground was prepared
by subsoil plowing 10 the fall, and the
crop the next year consisted OF corn and
potatoes. We harvested crop Of seven
ty-five bushels of corn an acre, which
was three times as much as the average
in this vicinity. The potato crop here
was practically failure, but our crop
on subsoil ground was about l25 bush-
els an acre."
After land has been titled for q num-
Der of years the soil becomes mixed and
of the same con. istency to the depth II
has been plowed ;but it will be found that
that the surface soil that has been expos
ed tu the Mysterious influence OF the sun,
rain and atmosphere Is livelier, sweetef
and more favorable for plant growth than
the soil that has been farther away from
these Influences. This is particularly
noticeable in our clay uplands. The
deep alluvial soil along the river, consist
ing Of a sandy loan and having good nat
ural drainage, will show little differ.
ence in corn crop whether the graund
is plowe ed deep or shallow. When plow'
ed very deep the corn may look yellow
when 1t first comes up, but soon changes
to dark green when the roots have
penetrated to the sun-sweetened soil.
10 the fall plowed part OF timothy
meadow in the river fats nine inches
deep and the other part only six inches,
and planted both with corn the follow:
inf spring. There was good yield OF
stalks and ears, and no perceptible dill
ference could be seen between the parts
plo ed deep or shallow. The following
spring half the corn stubble on the same
field was plowed nine inches deep aud
the other half six iuches, and again
planted with corn, the result being the
same as In the former year; no differ
ence in the production of stalks or ears
on the parts could be observed.
A pasture field on our upland was
plowed In the spring with the plow set
10 run about ak inches deep, but when
the field was about half plowed the
wheel that regulated the depth OF the
furrow broke and the remainder was
plowed nine inches deep. The field was
then planted with corn, and the exact
spot where the wheel broke, and the
plow pitched down deeper, could be
seen by the color of the corn as soon as
it came up, which looked very yellow on
the deeply plowed ground and deep
green ON the shallow. When ripe, there
was not more than half as many bushels
of ears in the deeply plowed ground,
and the stalks were smaller than on the
other.
An adjoining field Of upland was
plowed for oats, and in order to turn out
the numerous small stumps which had
become loose the ground was purposely
plowed nine inches deep, or thereabout.
The field was sown. and the oat plants
looked yellow for long time after they
came up, and did not grow tall enough
to be cradled-had to be mown with q
scythe, and did not yield half crop. |
think if that field had been topdressed
with fiue stable manure before the oats
were sowu there would have been an
average yield.-J. w. Ingham in Tribune
Farmer.