SOIL AND TILLAGE. 55 



Plpw shallow in the spring. By deep plowing you bring up 

 land that is wetter and colder than that on the surface. In sum- 

 mer and fall plow deep, if you know why you are doing so. As 

 to whether you should till, cultivate or harrow deeply, that is a 

 constant and recurring question. After rolling, deep harrowing 

 before a crop and shallow tillage witJi a crop are the best. Right 

 here a word about lumps and clods. Any system of tillage that 

 produces them (as in the case of plowing or harrowing when too 

 wet) is fatal and any system of tillage which allows them will be 

 unsuccessful. Crush, cut, grind, and turn "if it takes all sum- 

 mer" as General Grant said. 



But what does this tilling do besides improving the soil 

 mechanically? It is of great assistance in the conservation of 

 moisture and in promoting nitrification. First, as to moisture. 

 The rainfall in some of the interior states is less than 26 inches 

 per year and quite often it does not thoroughly rain for three or 

 four months at a time, yet they produce wonderful crops of corn. 

 How is this? They conserve the moisture. I make the state- 

 ment without reserve that a good system of tillage will plant a 

 field of corn, grow it to maturity and harvest it successfully with- 

 out one drop of rain during that time ! ^lind. I do not say that 

 this would be as profitably done ; but it can be done without a 

 doubt. In California trees stand loaded with fruit and green 

 leaves with no irrigation, where rain seldom falls from May to 

 October. The procedure there (and in New England the same) 

 is something like this : the land would be plowed in the spring as 

 early as it could be handled and at once rolled and harrowed. 

 It would be reharrowed or cultivated, always shallow, every ten 

 days from that time until the crop was ripe. 



But how does this accomplish the result? We know that the 

 rain of winter passed through the soil down to the water table. 

 We know that the capillary action by which oil goes up the wick 

 of our lamps draws this water back to the surface as fast as it is 

 dried out there by the wind or taken up by the plants. The pro- 

 cess of drying out on the surface often takes out as much water 

 in one day as a growing crop would in five or even ten. This 

 waste, nature prevents by covering the soil with a mulch of 

 decaying leaves and grass. We must mulch the surface in the 

 same way but not with the same material. \\q must use dust. 

 By tilling two inches deep every week we can make the upper 



