The Bulletin-. 75 



tive eUnnents. The liuir roots of plants drink this nourishment. Since 

 plants take up food only in a liquid form, we can readily see that although 

 we may apply a ton of fertilizer per acre, yet the plants cannot use it if 

 there is no moisture present to dissolve the fertilizer. Plants use an enor- 

 mous quantity of water. An acre of good corn, for instance, will absorb and 

 evaporate about 10 Inches of water. About three-fourths of this will be re- 

 quired during the last seventy-five days of its growth. It is very seldom that 

 this amount of rain falls during that period, and of what does fall much is 

 lost by evaporation from the soil itself, and often much of it is lost by surface 

 drainage. So we know that it is impossible for a 4-inch soil to furnish suffi- 

 cient moisture for a maximum crop during a normal season. The remedy for 

 this, then, is to deepen the soil by plowing so that it will have a greater stor- 

 age capacity for water. Shallow and generally poorly prepared seedbeds are 

 the princii)al causes of the low yields of corn in the South. They also affect 

 cotton and other crops similarly, although not to so great an extent. 



The time and method of deep plowing and the condition of the soil and sub- 

 soil when the plowing is done are important. As a general rule, fall and early 

 winter plowing are much better for deep plowing than spring ; in fall plow- 

 ing the soil has a chance for several months weathering before spring plant- 

 ing begins ; it has an opportunity to catch and store the winter rains ; it 

 reduces the amount of breaking to be done when the rush of spring work 

 comes on. To a considerable extent it prevents washing and leaching, and 

 the soil has time to settle and produce a firm seedbed. One of the principal 

 objections to deep plowing in the spring is, we can hardly ever find the soil 

 and subsoil in condition to plow at the same time. When the surface soil 

 has dried sufHciently for plowing the subsoil is still usually too wet to plow. 

 By the time the subsoil is dry enough to plow the surface soil is often so dry 

 that it breaks into clods. If, however, soil can be found in proper condition 

 it is all right to plow deep at any season. In no case should plowing be done 

 when either the surface soil or the subsoil is too wet. Very little of the sub- 

 soil should be thrown out on top at any one plowing. 



As to the implements to use for deep breaking, it makes very little differ- 

 ence which is used, just so it does the work easily and does not invert the soil 

 too much. One of the best implements for this work is the disc plow. This 

 goes into the earth easily, and does not entirely invert the furrow slice, but 

 sets it on edge. The ordinary subsoil plow does good work of this character. 

 Where neither of these is at hand a very common practice is to run two ordi- 

 nary plows one behind the other and in the same furrow. The second plow, 

 in this case, should be one without turning facilities. The objection to this 

 method is its expense. 



Some exceptions should be noted in regard to the above statements concern- 

 ing deep plowing. Land with a deep porous subsoil is not usually benefited 

 by deep plowing. Very deep, coarse, sandy soils do not need deep plowing 

 unless considerable humus is to be turned under. In that case the humus 

 should be buried deeply so as to act as a subsoil. Soils that are water-logged 

 or that are badly in need of drainage are rarely benefited by deep plowing 

 except in extremely dry seasons. If such soils were underdrained they would 

 usually respond well to deep plowing. Many marshes, bogs, and other low, 

 wet soils would produce big crops if they were drained and deepened by 

 plowing. 



SOIL IMPROVEMENT. 



By C. L. Newman. 



This is a subject which, from an economic point of view, affects the farmer 

 to a greater extent than does any other which bears upon farming as a busi- 

 ness. The surface of the earth is the base of all of man's activities on earth. 

 His sphere of influence is almost limited to the surface, since he neither 



