Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1918-03-21

cracking up of it's sub soil than that If
northern France. undcrlaid Gas il is, ny
strata OF .decomposing chalk.
To the professor of agricultural science
who maintained that the land Of the
battle areas would he 'debilitated' BY the
ad'niNture of a great quantity of nom
humns bearing soil from below, ] might
point out that for every pound of the
latter thrown up by a shell from the
apeN or Its crater, anywhere from so to
lo pounds Of earth rich in dccaying vege-
liable matter Is scattered from the fr,lstum
or the cone which is torn out nearer the
surface. A ono or two. or even u S per
cent admixture of non-humus bearing
SUB soil will do the surface soil moro
good than harm. as any farmer who has
practired extra deep %ploughing will
testify.
Through the courtesy of the French and
the British war offices, ] made a visit in
person ia the principal battle areas OF the
western front. there to study at first
hand-in the light of my experience as a
1armer-the problem of the restoration If
the she'll ravaged fields. The regions
visited included the most bitterly fought
over in the west. and no sooner had I
travclscd a mile of the first of them than
l had all the evidence needed to con-
vince me of the utter nonsense of the
contentious of tho learned theorists. Never
under the hand of the husbandman nave
the fields of northern France brought
forth such II wealth Of verdure as his
last summer, and the fact that most of
this growth consisted of wild flowers and
weeds was merely because nothing else
had been planted in their stead. But IL
was not until the day j met a Canadian
officer, who 0ike myself), owned a west
ern ranch and had broken up new land
With a tractor. that a practical solution
or the problem suggested itself.
The danger from unexploded shells is
practically negligible" he said. '.for the
simple reason that a d%etonator that has
failed to go off at the end of a 5-milc on
10-mile flight through the air is not likely
to be greatly disturbed by a prod from a
plonghshare. Also. the explosive In a
shell or hand grenade tends to deteriorate
very rapidly after burial In damp earth.
Neither will buried barb wire give much
trouble for any length Of time. That which
can be got hold of from the surface will
be picked up long before the war is over,
while that which is buried out of sight
can be pulled up-Or cut off far enough
down to keep it from fouling the plough
again-as fast az 1t is run into.
The question then narrows down as IN
what sort of a machine will have to be
devised to accomplish his preliminary
work. i do not need to tell you that the
ordinary type Of side wheel tractor would
not progress It's own length over an aver
age stretch of crater ground nor that
even the largest and most powerful cater
pillar would stall down in the first big
shell hole and nave to give up the game
for good at the first uncaved in line of
trench. Right here you have the answer
to those who are asking what is to be
done with the thousands of tanks that
will be left without Occupation at the
end of the war. Use them for tractors to
draw specially devised plows and harrow.
In the first rough cultivation Of the crater
areas"