The Columbus courier. [volume] (Columbus, Luna County, N.M.) 1911-1920, 1915-04-09
BEST WAY OF BREAKING SOD
Some Difficulty Experienced In Turn
Ing Sod Up With Ordinary Plew-
Sure Of Coed Crop.

Sure Of Good Crop.
have broken sod at different depths
and handled II In different ways and
this is the way ! have found best
Break II as nearly eight inehes deep
az IL possible. Now In breaking sod
eight inches deep, we md some dim
Gully in turning the sod bottom-side
up with the ordinary pillow. take my
breaking bottom and have extensions
put on the moldboard and have those
extensions rather sharply turned so
that the sod Ia forced ove and down;
then set the plows 10 cut so wide
that the under edge N the sod lacks
about an inch OF being cut clear
across, writes ]. s. Murphy in Denver
Field and Farm. This has the effect
Of s~teadying the furrow and holding
Il where wanted until II Is about to
be turned down fat when the uncut
inch Is torn loose.
have turned sod 81 completely bot
tom.side up in this way that one could
drive an automobile across II, 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 II Is almost
impossible to work II down or keep
such a field from drying out. follow
the breaker right up within me hour
with q corrugated roller, weighted
down with about 1000 pounds of rock,
and follow the roller with a 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
burrows and a good mulch is estab-
lished. Land handled In this way.
even In a medium dry year, Is sure
to produce a good crop Of grain, de-
pending somewhat on the rainfall.
However, II one can at all possibly
AFFORD It, | advise against putting In a
crop the hrst year. by not planting
you are dead sure to get a 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 a crop the
first year, you will have driven down
the moisture; and in n year OF ordi'
nary rainfall, you will have probably
three-foot content OF moisture. Again.
by not using the moisture In the pro
ductlon Of a crop, the green, damp
sod, helped by the packing tgiven It
will have rotted the subsoil down q
good two inches, so that when backsei
you can without the expenditure Of
much power, turn from two to three
inches Of subsoil.
In the early days Il was the custom
to break in the spring and backset II
the fall. That method is foolish II
the semiarid region. In a season o
exceptionally large rainfall one nigh
Lave Indifferent success by backsei
ting in the iall; but in the averag,
year you will be simply tumbling a 10
Of partially rotted clods around. M,
experience c~onvinces me that IA sol
should lay two whole summers an
one winter, or, II the years are dry
two summers and two winters. Shout
10 circumstances force 4 settler to put 4
a crop the first year, he should be sur
TO disk the stubble the day he cut
% the crop and disk II fairly deep.
- Flax takes no more substance froI
y the soil than other crops and not 8
much as some crops; but, because II
y root system is so much different. III
soil is apt TO dry out more with ha
than with most any other crop. TIL
ideal time for breaking Is when III
native grass is growing the tastes
because II Is then tenderest and II
sod rots the quickest. Dry farmin
is o new system Of agriculture. CO
structed on the basis Of the old pri
ciple, but with the conservation
moisture as the heart and brain
the idea. The soil in a semiarid T
gion lie apt TO lack humus and lar
with much humus is capable OF retail
ing and carrying much more moistu
a, than land with little humus and y,
can maintain OF restore humus In lal
ra by n proper system OF crop rotatiO
There are some fourteen elements
=. our soil which must be kept up, b
as old Mother Nature looks after elevi
Of those herself, leaving three for y,
!, TO watch and look after-nitroge
ahaauhaeasa auA naNaak