The Beaver herald. [volume] (Beaver, O.T. [Okla.]) 1895-1923, 1915-07-01
DRY FARMING SUCCESS
Two Distinct Systems Are Now
Being Employed.
Deer Flowing lnsures Larger Crop
Yield and Also Saves Humus,
Which Is Important In Con-
serving Soil Moisture.

letin.)
There are two distinct schools of
dry farming.
One relies more on the intensive
tillage of the top FIVE OF six inches
rather than on systematic deep work
ing of the soil
The other might be termed sub
soil farming, for the results are OBJ
tanned by deep plowing, deep roofing
and a reservoir of moisture from two
to six feet under the surface where
practically nothing can extract the
moisture but the roots of crops.
Anyone who plants trees two feet
deep In the subsoi of a well cultivated
farm and watches them grow can at
once appreciate the difference be-
tween the two systems.
In the intensive surface system the
farmer plows his sod two or three
inches, rolls 1t fiat and runs a slanted
harrow over 1t. He plants a crop on
1t. The next season be backsets IL,
sets II back where 1t was before, and
plants crop on the other side Of It.
The least said about the yield the
better.
In the deep plowing or subsoil sys.
tenn of farming, as advocated by the
writer and such men as Farrell of
Utah, Spalding of Denver. Colonel
Bester of the Transvaal. etc. etc, we
first disk the sod in wet weather as
deeply as possible, then turn 1t under
from eight to ten inches deep, and
disk the underside, which is now up
permost.
In grandfather's time they used to
plow the sod shallow and leave II to
rot. Nowadays we do most of this rot
ting with the disk, and alternate the
disk with the harrow until the whole
thing is reduced to a mellow seed
bed.
A seed bed prepared in this manner
and allowed time to soak up and set
tie with the precipitation of winter or
spring, is good for 40 or so bushels of
corn or three tons of sorghum feed
the first year.
Deep work also saves the humus,
which is as important as conserving
moisture. for when sod is worried to
pieces on the surface until 1t is worn
out its fertillzing value ESTIMATED at
about 800 an acre) 1t is almost en-
tirely lost-burned up by the atmos-
phere.
The next season we do not back
set 1t. The modern way is to cross
plow it. which cross chops the whole
field, making the tilth finer yet An
other reason we prefer cross plowing
is that the plow. instead of following
and skidding along the same ruts, at
tacks them at the side. going under
them and through them. and works up
all the cut and cover slices in the
hard streaks left by the first break
ing.
II this were thoroughly understood
there would be no more backsetting,
for the second year should produce
the finest crop in the life of the field.
rather than a catch crop OF nubbins
on two or three-inch backset.
delusion cherished by the shallow
school OF dry farming is that water
may be caused to rise from the sub
soil to the seed bed in dry weather by
packing. and that. therefore. there is
no reason to plow deeply.
The professors of physics tell us
that within certain we'll understood
limits the densest, most compact soil
has the stronger capillary pull, SO
even II there was free water present
the seed bed would have to be COM
pacted until more solid than the sub
soil in order to obtain rise OF mois-
ture from down below. For instance.
a brick will take moisture from
sponge, but the sponge will not take
moisture from a brick.
1t can also be readily understood
that when a man is farming over
hundred feet of dry subsoil, there is
no free water, for 1t Is all absorbed.
| and converted into film water as fast
as II falls
The idea, of course, has been i'm
| ported from the humid states where
free water in the soil is rather the
rule than the exception.
1t is quite true, however, that after
narrowing newly plowed field in
| spring weather. moisture seems to
come to the surface. 1t does. so long
as there is any free water in the top
six inches which has not had time to
be absorbed into the subsoil, but this
is simply the top inch robbing the
second and third and does not come
from any depth.
AS all dry farmers know-who
have ever plowed a field-that in
stead of moisture coming up from be-
low In dry weather, the seed bed CON-
mences to dry out, and II 1t has been
overpacked crust forms under tho
mulch which in shallow plowed field
may kill the crop.