The Ordway new era., 1915-04-09
BEST WAY OF BREAKING SOD
Some Difficulty Experienced in Turn,
Ing Sod Up with Ordinary PIow-
sure Of Good Crop.


Z hFrI -
have broken sod at different depths
and handled II IN different ways and
this is the way ! have found best:
Break It as nearly eight inches deep
as is possible. Now in breaking sod
eight inches deep. we find some diff
Guilty in turning the sod bottom.side
up with the ordinary plow. l take my
breaking bottom and have extensions
put on the moldboard and have those
extensions rather sharply turned so
that the sod is forced over and down:
then ] set the plows TO cut SO wide
that the under edge of the sod lacks
about an inch OF being cut clear
across. writes ]. S. Murphy in Denver
Field and Farm. This has the effect
of steadying the furrow and holding
it where wanted until 1t is about to
be turned down fiat when the uncut
inch is torn loose.
! have turned sod so completely bot
tomside up in this way that one could
drive an automobile across it. going
ten miles an hour and hardly get
Jared. Breaking stood up on edge
and kinked in every which way is not
good workmanship. and it is almost
impossible to work it down or keep
such field from drying out. I follow
the breaker right up within the hour
with corrugated roller. weighted
down with about 1000 pounds of rock
and follow the roller with disk.
having the disk well set over and not
weighted, and disking as lightly as
possible, only getting a mulch OF not
more than two Inches. Then ! fol.
low the disk with a light harrow. and
this fills up all the cracks between the
furrows and good mulch is estab-
lished. Land handled in this way.
even In a medium dry year. Is suro
to produce good crop of grain, de-
pending somewhat on the rainfall.
However, II one can at all possibly
afford 1t. / advise against putting in
crop the first year. By not Planting
you are dead sure to get good crop
the next year. assuming, OF course.
that you have maintained the mulch.
kept out the weeds and have done the
necessary thing by frequent harrow
ing. Also by not sowing crop the
first year. you will have driven down
the moisture; and in a year OF ordi-
nary rainfall. you will have probably
three-foot content of moisture. Again.
by not using the moisture In the pro-
duction OF a crop. the green, damp
sod. helped by the packing given it,
will have rotted the subsoil down a
good two inches. SO that when backset
you can without the expenditure OF
much power. turn from two to three
inches Of subsoil.
In the early days It was the custom
to break in the spring and backset In
the fall. That method is foolish in
the semiarid region. In a season OF
exceptionally large rainfall one might
have Indifferent success by backset-
ting in the fall; but In the average
year YOU will be simply tumbling a lot
Of partially rotted ciods around. My
experience convinces me that our sod
should lay two whole summers and
one winter. or. II the years are dry.
two summers and two winters Should
circumstances force a settler to put In
a crop the first year. he should be sure
to disk the stubble the day he cuts
the crop and disk 1t fairly deep.
Flax takes no more substance from
the soil than other crops and not so
much as some crops; but. because its
root system is so much different. the
soil Is apt to dry out more with fax
than with most any other crop. The
ideal time for breaking is when the
native grass is growing the fastest,
because II is then tenderest and the
sod rots the quickest. Dry farming
Is a new system of agriculture. con-
structed on the basis OF the old prin.
ciple. but with the conservation of
moisture as the heart and brain of
the idea. The soil In a semiarid re.
gion is apt to lack humus and land
with much humus Is capable of retain
ing and carrying much more moisture
than land with little humus and you
can maintain or restore humus in lard
by a proper system of crop rotation.
There are some fourteen elements in
our soil which must be kept up. but
old Mother Nature looks after eleven
of those herself, leaving three for you
to watch and look after-nitrogen
phosphorus and potash.