THE CAMPBELL SUBSOIL PACKER IN S. W. MINN. 343 



THE CAMPBELL SUBSOIL PACKER IN SOUTHWEST 

 MINNESOTA. 



O. C. GREGG, I.YND. 



We write definitely concerning this packer as adapted to the 

 average conditions upon the prairie in southwest Minnesota. We 

 also \\Tite cautiously, because our experience with it has not as yet 

 been extended enough so that we feel sure in our own minds as to 

 its intrinsic worth under the average farm conditions. 



Before we can have' a good understanding of this matter, we 

 should have a fair understanding as to some conditions which main- 

 tain in the soils of this section. First of all, it has a grand subsoil 

 for the retaining of moisture. It is a clay of a peculiar texture 

 which is capable of retaining a large amount of water, without at 

 the same time having the adverse conditions which are found in the 

 too compact blue clays or other impervious clays. This subsoil is 

 the redeeming feature in this section, particularly in times of 

 drouth. Wherever we find a subsoil of sand or gravel we find a soil 

 which will fail the tiller in drouthy times. Judging from thirty 

 years of experience in this section, we estimate that about one-half 

 of our seasons may be called drouthy ones, and during those sea- 

 sons in particular we must depend very largely upon the subsoil 

 water for the growing of our crops. There are times even dur- 

 ing a plentiful rainfall, such as the one through which we have just 

 passed, namely, the summer of 1900, when during the ver\' impor- 

 tant growing season of the month of June we must then get the 

 water from the subsoil that the growing crop demands. From what 

 we have now seen of this section, we observe that the moisture 

 which falls in summer by rain and in winter and spring by thaw- 

 ing snows is stored up in the subsoil, and if we handle the soil 

 aright we shall see to it that we make all the conditions necessary to 

 use it rather than to let it escape through the influence of the hot 

 suns and the south and southwest winds. 



Another factor in the surface soil is that it is inclined to be- 

 come loose under most of the conditions of cultivation, and when it 

 is in that condition it very readily parts with the moisture and allows 

 it to rapidly escape from the subsoil that we have referred to. 



Facts in the newer agriculture for this section. — First, we have 

 learned the value of a compact soil that enables it by capillary ac- 

 tion to bring water from beneath to sustain the growing crop. In 

 other words, the successful farmer of that section will check against 

 a loss in his crop by ever keeping in mind a density of soil so that 

 he can. be assured that his crop can fall back upon subsoil mois- 



