The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1915-06-10
Conserving Moisture.

Conserving Moisture.
Conserving moisture! We think
we hear loud laugh from nearly
every reader. He will say to him
self: Conserving moisture! What's
the matter with Uncle Henry! Has
he been asleep? Don't he know it's
at it in the corn belt for about ten
days? Don't he know that many
railroad bridges have been washed
out? Don't he know that the dirt
roads are practically bottomless, so
that we can't get to town? Don't he
know that the rivers are overflow
ing the bottom lands? Don't he
know that the farmers can't get into
their corn, and the weeds are grow
in? Don't he know that he can't
cure his alfalfa; can't even cut it in
some places? Don't he know that
there's water in the cellar? What's
he thinking about. anyhow
We know all this and more. 1t is
no new thing that has happened to
us. About every ten or twelve years
we get just such weather as this;
rain about the time you are finish
| ing corn planting and want to begin
plowing it; rain that makes floods
and wash-outs. We have had it be-
fore, and will have it again. None
the less, this is just the time to talk
about conserving the moisture.
The soil is full of water now, all
it will hold; and anything more that
comes in the next week or two will
run off and fill up the streams.
There is more water than we know
what to do with, but that's just the
reason why we should think about
conserving the moisture. For these
heavy rains haze packed the surface
of the ground. 1t will crust and
crack open, and the moisture we
have will get out faster than we
have any idea Of; and unless farm
ers realize the conditions, their corn
may be short of water in July, and
almost certainly in August. unless
we should have a wet August, as we
have sometimes had in the past. The
chances are that, Notwithstanding the
surplus of rain now, there will be
shortage of it just at the time when
corn needs it most. We have enough
good corn crop, provided, it is con-
served, provided we don't let it get
away. We have all the ground will
hold, but we will need every bit of
it that does not naturally run away
from the surface or through springs
and sloughs and streams.
| What must you do about it? AS
soon as you can get into the corn
fields, put on mulch of loose dirt.
You will have to kill the weeds, myr-
lads of them, and if the weather
should keep on as it has been the
last week in May, you will have to
go down pretty deep to get rid OF
the weeds. incidentally you will
make mulch of loose dirt. Keep
it on as long as you can. This may
be a season in which it will be nee
essary to cultivate corn very late,
in order to retain in the ground this
needed moisture.
There may be lot of ground that
you can't get into corn this year;
but we anticipated this in another
article. Stockmen can get it into
sorghum or into rape. The man who
is so fortunate as not to have stock
enough to consume it can SOW to
German millct for seed or to buck
wheat. Anything is better than let
ting it grow up in weeds-which will
be likely to go to seed and pollute
the land for years to come.
Business men are already begin
ming to ask questions Nas to how this
will affect crops. Not favorably.
The surplus of rain may make win
ter wheat lodge, so with oats. 1t
will help out pastures and meadows;
but the effect it will have on the corn
crop will depend very largely on the
extent to which this moisture is con-
served. It will no doubt decrease the
acreage of corn; and hence it is all
the more important that we should
conserve the moisture that we now
have in such supcrabundance, and
make the most of it. There is every
inducement to do that this year. For
with the decreased acreage in corn
which is inevitable in Iowa, Illinois,
eastern Nebraska and Kansas, it will
be all the more important to grow
the largest possible crop on the
lands we can cultivate, and this can
be done best by conserving moisture.
The popularity about rainfall is that
it will get away just as fast as it
can, as fast as you will let 1t. It will
get away by gravitation and by
evaporation through packing and
crusting the surface Your business
is to keep it from getting away, and
make it pass through the plant, SO
os fo nroduce a ful1 crOD --Wallac07sa "