The record. (Greenville, Ky.) 1899-1???, 1913-06-12
Deep vs.. Shallow Cultivation.


enough to make several crops of
.orn even if we did not have any
'ain during the summer months.
Of course a great deal of this
water was lost by surface drain
age; but more has been lost by
evaporation, and is still being
lost by evaporation. 1t is posi-
Die to prevent this loss, to a great
by shallow and frequent
cultivation. 1t has been proven
by experimental stations that it
requires from 270 to 500 tons of
water to produce one ton of dry
matter with the corn crop. If
it should require 270 tons it
would mean that if the water
could be placed at once on the
land that we would have a lake
three to four inches deep.
Our soils are made up of small
particles, so small that it would
require more than one thousand
to make an inch. 1t can be
seen that the better we
pillow and harrow our land. in
other words getting a perfect
seed bed having the best of
filth, before planting our crops,
the finer and smaller become the
soil particles. This produces a
greater feeding area or surface
for the small roots Of our crops,
making a very rapid early
growth possible. The better we
prepare our land before planting
our crop the better and larger
will the yield of corn be. it is
bound to be so or mordern agri-
culture would not mean any
thing, modern methods would
not stand for what they do.
All experiment stations in their
work bear out this one fact,
that the better the preparation
of all soil before planting. the
better the after cultivation, the
better the crop at harvest time.
So the farmer who plods along
year by year. without giving
any thought to his work cannot
hope to compete with the man
who mixes brain, with Drawn.
And what a sad ending, for he
will eventually be crowded of
the farm, and be compelled to &C
to work for others for a livil-
hood, it is bound to come, it is
inevitable.
When shallow cultivation is
practiced the upper soil spaces
near the surface, capillary spaces
they are called, are broken and
the direct connections of the
subsoil water with the upper sol
layer are broken, preventing the
water from coming out of the
soil. When evaporation takes
place the water in the subsoi
passes from one soil particle II
another soil particle, envelopine
each particle with a firm of mois'
ture until the surface Is reached,
where it Is either consumed by
the plants or is evaporated.
Now if the surface soil is covered
with fine layer of loose earth
the water cannot escape. Be-
cause of this fact, the finer the
teeth of a cultivator, the finer
is the surface soil made. This
fine soil layer is called a dust
mulch" and sometimes is called
a blanket" for it acts as a
mulch or blanket, by preventing
the water from leaving the soiL
We are ABSOLUTELY unable to. pro-
duce or make this mulch with
the double shovel pillow. or with
the turning pillow, and in fact
by the use of these prehistoric
for cultivation, the
roots of the corn plant are to-
up, pruned off, exposed tc ,ae
sun, and the crop received a seri-
GUS setback.
Is it not enough, that the
several experimental stations
that have been ut work along
these lines. have proved beyond
any possible doubt. that most
of the roots of the corn plant are
in the first six inches of the soil,
that by deep cultivation of the
corn crop, we lose from six to
ten bushels of corn per acrel Is
it not enough for the thinking
farmer of Muhlenberg county to
know that by adopting modern
methods he can increase his
earning power. by increasing his
earning power he is able to pro-
vide moro of the home comforts
I