The Ely miner., 1943-09-23
By ELMO SCOTT WATSON

>dOMAO GhA I the 1alilouS
Il English poet, has mace i'm
mortal the plowman who home
ward plods his weary way" and
for two centuries the plowman
and his plow have been the
theme of song and story, build
ing up the idea that they are the
benefactors of mankind. In
fact, 'Venerate the plow" was
the motto engraved upon the
medals offered by the Agricul-
tural Society of Philadelphia
early in the Nineteenth century
to stimulate agricultural expert
mentation, and more than a doz-
en- of our states have the plow as
one of the symbols in their great
seals.
In the face of this tradition it
may come as a shock to most
Americans to be told that in
stead of venerating the plow,
we should look upon it as an en-
emy of agriculture and the tool
that is responsible for "all of
the erosion, the sour soils, the
mounting floods, the lowering
water table, the vanishing wild
life, the compact and impervi-
Gus soil surface" which have be-
devilled the American farmer
in recent years. Yet that is ex-
actly what an agricultural eX-
pert tells us in a new book.
He is Edward H. Faulkner and
his revolutionary idea is developed
in the book ''Plowman's Folly pub
ished recently by the University of
Oklahoma Press. And lest it be
thought that he is only a theorist,
visionary" and ''book farmer"
let it be added Immediately that he
is the son of a successful farmer,
that he was trained in agriculture
at Williamsburg Baptist institute
(now Cumberland college) and at
the University of Kentucky, that he
has been county agent in Kentucky
and Ohio, Smith-Hughes teacher
of agriculture and a soil and crop
investigator in private employment.
Moreover, he has carried on his eX-
periments in garden plot and on a
farm scale on land which he owns in
Ohio and by his crop yields has
translated theory into solid fact.
At the beginning of "Plowman's
Folly" Mr.. Faulkner says that his
book "sets out to show that the mold
board plow which is in use on farms
throughout the civilized world, is the
least satisfactory implement for the
preparation of land for the produc-
ton of crops. This sounds like a
paradox, perhaps, in view of the fact
that for nearly a century there has
been a science of agriculture, and
that agricultural scientists almost to
a man have used and approved the
use of the moldboard plow. Never
theless, the statement made above
is true and capable of proof. Much
of the proof, as a matter of fact,
has come in left-handed manner from
scientists themselves. The truth is
that no one has ever advanced a
scientific reason for plowing."
He then proceeds to examine all
the reasons that are given for plow
ing and points out their inconsistent
cies and even absurdities. "Assum-
ing plowed land to be better for
plant growth, we should find grass
growing more freely on plowed land
than on similar unplowed land near
by" he points out. ''Weeds, too,
should show preference for plowed
land. Volunteer growth should take
over and develop more rankly after
land had been splowed than before.
Is this so? Observation is that, un-
til plowed land has subsidized again
to its former state of firmness, plants
develop in it quite tardily, if at all.
When dry weather follows the plow-
ing, it may be weeks or even months
before either natural vegetation or a
planted crop will make normal
growth. The fact is that bare land,
which notably erodes worse than soil
In any other condition, consists al
most wholly of land that has been
disturbed recently by plow or culti-
waiting implement. The only other
bare land is that which has been
denuded of top soil by erosion or
other forces. There is significance
In the fact that erosion and runoff
are worse on bare land, and that
bare land is defined above"
The effect which plowing has upon
this top soil is the principal reason
why the author of ''Plowman's Fol-
ly' considers this instrument an en-
emy, rather than benefactor of
agriculture. In fact, the principal
thesis of the book is that it is wrong
to plow natural fertilizers deep into
the soil and that this natural fertiliz-
er-crop residue and green manure
crops-should be Incorporated into
the top soil (Which, as everybody
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