42 



VERMONT AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



while that which is produced by the third system is greatly pul- 

 verized and broken. Neither the overlapping nor the rolling slice 

 is apt to be quite as effective a moisture retainer as is the flat 

 slice, but they are far more serviceable than the latter as means 

 of absorbing snow and rain waters and thus augmenting the main 

 source of supply. 



Fall plowing in these latitudes is apt to be the better pro- 

 cedure on heavier soils. Such are opened up, rendered more 

 porous, more pervious to water, which permeates the surface and 

 penetrates the subsoil. They are favorably affected by the freez- 

 ing and thawing, by the chemical and physical transformations 

 which follow their exposure, particularly as regards the increased 

 amount of plant food thus rendered available. In lower latitudes 

 it is doubtless a more ideal condition to occupy such soil with a 

 crop throughout the late fall, winter and early spring in order 

 that fall and spring rains and thawing winter snows may be the 

 better held and that there may be less soluble plant food lost. This 

 consideration holds here, but not to the same degree. Water is 

 apt to run off unabsorbed at such times from unoccupied soils, 

 left in the stubble or fallow, particularly if of the more compact 

 type ; and these very soils are prone to suft'er for the lack of that 

 very abundance which was theirs in other seasons, but which they 

 could not appropriate. It is well understood that a fall plowed 

 piece should be left thus for spring handling and smoothing; if 

 harrowed in the fall it is apt to puddle. For obvious reasons the 

 fall plowing of lighter soils is less necessary. 



Spring plowing on the heavier soils, if it must be practiced, 

 should be done as soon as their condition will permit. Such a 

 procedure will be in the interest of moisture conservation as well 

 as of hastening spring work. Effort should be made to plow such 

 soils at a time when they hold such an amount of moisture that 

 they will crumble and break into a fine meal-like condition when 

 the furrow is turned. To plow before the soil is dry enough is 

 to invite clod formation and trouble. 



Deep plowing — but not too deep, increasing in depth as the 

 years pass on very slowly rather than rapidly — promotes moist- 

 ure conservation, since it affords a larger area in which roots may 

 ramble and hence more opportunity for them to absorb water. 

 The fall season should be chosen as a rule for deep plowing, as 

 the lower portions of the furrow slice may then be the better 

 weathered and the better fitted for crop growing service. If the 

 spring season is chosen, however, a shallower furrow slice is ad- 

 vised, lest the plant roots, of many crops at any rate, fail before 

 the droughty days intervene to penetrate through the disturbed 

 soil layers relatively lacking in moisture to the undisturbed moist- 

 ure laden layers beneath. 



