FIFTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART VI. 479 



kind of soil pieces of land that seemed to be merely a pile of clods, which 

 can not very readily be crushed until thoroughly soaked up with rain and 

 then cultivated when they are beginning to dry out. 



This is the reason why we have urged disking these lands in order to 

 form a dust mulch and to prevent clods from forming. When this dust 

 mulch is turned under it fits in closely on the unplowed surface or the upper 

 part of the subsoil; in other words, the bottom of the preceding furrow; and 

 there being no clod formation, it becomes quite easy to prepare the proper 

 seed bed. Then with deep cultivation to begin with and a continuance of 

 the dust mulch during the latter part of the season, you have not merely a 

 rapidly improving seed bed, but the greatest possible supply of moisture in 

 case there should be a shortage of rainfall in July, August, or early Sep- 

 tember. 



The crop of corn this year will depend on the amount of plant food with 

 which the soil is stored, the physical condition on which it is found at the 

 time the corn is planted and during its period of cultivation and subsequent 

 growth, and the units of heat, and the amount of sunshine which the crop 

 receives during its lifetime. This year there will be many a field of only 

 moderately fertile land farmed in accordance with the principles above out- 

 lined that will yield a very much larger crop than land of much superior 

 fertility which is farmed carelessly and without any regard to these funda- 

 mental laws that govern the movement of water in the soil, the development 

 of the root system; and the maturity of the crop. 



Some of our readers may say that this is book farming. So it is; but 

 book farming is simply recording the experience of farmers for centuries 

 past under similar conditions, and telling the reasons why. That is book 

 farming and scientific farming. Book farming is simply the statement of 

 established facts, and scientific farming is simply good, common sense 

 farming,. or obedience to the laws governing the development of vegetable 

 life. No matter what he calls it, the man who studies and obeys these 

 fundamental laws will win, and will have the satisfaction of getting the 

 largest crop possible during the season; and the man who sneers at or 

 disregards these laws, considering his business one of pure luck or main 

 strength and awkwardness, will complain of his luck, or of the season, or of 

 the administration. 



Get your seed bed right, get the right kind of corn — corn adapted to your 

 locality— get it in at the right time, cultivate it right, and you may not have 

 a hundred bushels to the acre, or even seventy-five, but you will get all that 

 is possible during the season, all for which you are furnished with the proper 

 raw material. 



