The Oakley herald. [volume] (Oakley, Idaho) 1908-1961, 1915-07-09
DRY FARMING SUCCESS
Two Distinct Systems Are Now
Being Employed.
Deep Flowing Insures Larger Crop
Yield and Also Saves Aumus,
Which 10 Important In Con-
serving Soil Moisture.

(By f. r. PARSONS. in Dry Farm Bul
letin.)
There are two distinct schools o.
dry farming.
One relies more on the intensive
tillage of the top five or six inches
rather than on systematic deep work
Ing of the soil
The other might be termed sob
soil farming. for the results are Oh
tanned by deep blowing, deep roofing
and 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 subsoil of 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 it fiat and runs a slanted
harrow over it. He plants crop on
1t. The next season he backsets it.
sets 1t back where it was before, and
plants crop on the other side of it,
The least said about the yield the
better
In the deep blowing or subscil 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 it under
from eight to ten inches deep. and
disk the underside, which is now up
permost.
In grandfather's time they used to
pillow the sod shallow and leave It 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 it is worn
out Its fertilizing value ESTIMATED at
about 500 an acre. it is almost en-
tirely lost-burned up by the atmos-
phere.
Inc next season we do not back
set It, The modern way is to cross
plow 1t, which cross chops the whole
held, making the filth finer yet. An
other reason we prefer cross blowing
is that the pillow, 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.
III 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 catch crop of nubbins
A 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 pillow deeply.
The professors of physics tell us
that within certain we'll understood
limits the densest, most compact soil
mas the stronger capillary pull. sc
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 a rise of mois.
Iure from down below. For instance.
brick will take moisture from a
sponge, but the sponge will not take
moisture from a brick.
IL can also be readily understood
nat when man is farming over a
hundred feet of dry subsoil, there ia
10 free water for it is all absorbed
and converted into film water as fast
Is 1t falls.
The idea. of course, has been i'm.
ported from the humid states where
rec water in the soil is rather the
ule than the exception.
1t Is quite true. however, that afte,
narrowing newly plowed field In
pring weather, moisture seems to
ONE to the surface. 1t does, SO long
S there is any free water in the ton
TX inches which has not had time te
e absorbed into the subsoil but thi,
simply the top inch robbing the
econd and third and does not come
rom any depth.
AS all dry farmers know-whe
ave ever plowed field-that in ,
tead of moisture coming up from be ,
Nv in dry weather, the seed bed com ,
FENCES to dry out, and If it has been
verpacked a crust forms under the :
lulch which in shallow plowed field