THE MINNESOTA 
HORTICULTURIST. 
VOL. 23 NOVEMBER, 1895. NO. 10 
THE CONSERVATION OF SOIL MOISTURE BY MEANS 
OF SUBSOIL PLOWING. 
TL. LYON, B.S, A. 
From Bulletin No. 43 0f the Agricultural Experiment Station, 
Lincoln, Neb. 
(The fact shown in this valuable article is clearly of the greatest importance, and 
fruit growers would do wisely to heed it. Sec’y.) 
The question of water supply for crops has been met and suc-— 
cessfully dealt with, both in the case of a surplus and in many cases 
where a deficiency of moisture existed. By drainage on one hand 
and irrigation on the other, it has been possible where the natural 
conditions were favorable to withdraw from or apply water to the 
soil according to the needs of the case. Unfortunately, however, 
irrigation is not always practicable. Most of the land in Nebraska 
would be benefited by a larger application of water to the soil than 
is offered it by nature, although a comparatively small area of the 
state does not receive an annual rainfall large enough to raisea 
crop. As the surface water supply is very limited, and as that is at 
present the only supply practicable for irrigation, it is very appa- 
rent that we must properly conserve the water obtained by precipi- 
tation. 
The ordinary methods of soil preparation and cultivation have, 
during the past two years, proved inadequate to bring the soil into a 
condition capable of retaining, through a prolonged dry spell, the 
moisture it received by precipitation. Experiments have shown that 
subsoil plowing,* especially if done in the fall, anda thorough cul- 
tivation of the land during the growing season will do much towards 
conserving the soil moisture, thus enabling the crops grown thereon 
to withstand a drought much better than those grown on land treated 
in the ordinary way. 
The good results of subsoiling on the Experiment Station farm 
have been very marked. No experiment was planned for testing the 
effect of subsoil plowing, but on land that had previously been 
subsoiled for sugar beets and this year planted to corn, the effect of 
subsoiling was so strongly marked as to attract the attention of all 
who saw it. The subsoiled and surface plowed portions of land 
on which the corn is growing are in the same field on the east side 
of the farm. It is upland soil, with a gradual slope towards the 
east. In composition it isa fine loam with considerable organic 
matter. In the fall of 1891 a portion of this field was subsoil plowed 
*Loosening the subsoil without bringing it to the surface. 
