The Lamar register. [volume] (Lamar, Colo.) 1889-1952, 1913-02-26
PIOW DEEP SO IF YOU WANT
LARGE CROPS
Might As Well Try to Grow Grains
on Rag Carpet as Little Fur1Ow.
European Farmers Wise, They
Get Far Into Soil to Plant,
Reap Big Reward

To the Denver Republican,
working for a Greater Colorado let
us not forget dry farming. This is
the greatest undeveloped asset we
possess, and Colorado can never
be said to have come to her own
until we are producing 40 bushel
wheat and 40 bushel corn all over
the plains country from Denver to
the Republican river.
Our business men have little idea
of the possibilities of this branch of
agriculture because they do not
understand it, and they watch the
procedure of farmers and others
who also do not understand it. and
unfortunately there are among the
farmers themselves not more than
l per cent who are getting the re-
turns they are entitled to. Why is
this? The principal reason is that
the west does not know how to
plow, and i do not know of any
instructors who are trying to amel-
iorate this condition.
Then we have the Campbell sys-
tenn; but what IL 1t worth in Colo
rado? Campbell says in order to
raise wheat we must turn the sod
two or three inches deep; a man
might just as well try to raise a
crop on a rag carpet.
This kind OF work not only ruins
a mans field for future crops. for
IL the top of the subsoil is made
Quately protected and becomes dry.
it il almost impossible to get the
plow down any deeper the follow
ing year. but it also impoverishes
the soil by destroying the sod which
is our only natural fertilizer and
should be plowed under deep to save
the humus into which 1t becomes
converted. This, however. is a
sample of the kind of dry farming
instruction that is going to the
winds and is 1t any wonder there
is so little improvement in agricul-
tural methods.
When a certain sugar beet COM
pany consulted German expert
to learn why we raised five to ten
tons of beets to the acre instead of
Is to 80 as they do in Germany.
this is what he said:
"How can you people expect to
raise a 12-inch beet on 6-inch plow-
ing?"
This is the whole gist OF the
matter. How can We raise forty
bushel wheat on six-inch plowing.
when the normal length of the roots
is four feet?
The secret of 40-bushel wheat is
to get the roots four feet into the
subsoil. How is this done? BY
plowing in May or June 10 inches
or foot deep; the summer rains
go into this 10 inches of plowed
dirt above the subsoil keeps is per-
wet, the roots go down
into it three or four feet; it is
drouth proof.
When the wheat is planted in
August or September the roots
are down 10 or 12 inches inside
of three weeks from the time of
sprouting; all winter they are work
ing their way into the swbsoil and
the next year a crop results whether
it rains or not.
The land was plowed in May, the
crop is harvested the following
July, this makes IL months; the
average precipitation for this num-
Der of months is about 14 inches.
How much water is it necessary to
get into the ground in order to
make a crop? Eight inches.
why is Canada such a wheat
Because the frost does
their subsoiling for them. We can
DO our own deep blowing or sub
ioiling and beat them at their own
game at an extra cost of only 81