62 PLOWING 
loams not over three inches in depth. In later years it 
has been: found that by plowing to a depth of eight to 
nine inches that crop yields have been greatly increased. 
One third of the author’s “ Vetchfalfa Farm” is a 
sandy loam, the subsoil being a yellow sand ranging in 
depth from three to twelve feet with gravel underneath. 
When the author first came into the possession of 
this land he was cautioned to never under any circum- 
stances plow it to exceed four inches in depth or he 
would “ kill it.” 
The author concluded that there was nothing that . 
would pay him so well as to become closely acquainted 
with his own soil. So he got next to this sandy soil 
and studied it. He found that below the plowed depth 
the soil, even though it was pure sand, was so packed 
that air could not enter it and plant roots and moisture 
penetrated it with difficulty. He then concluded that 
there could be no danger in plowing this soil deep so long 
as the yellow sand below was not thrown up on the 
surface by the plow. So in the spring of 1910 he de- 
cided to “kill” the poorest tract of his sandy land and 
ordered the disc plows to be set to plowing as deeply 
as possible, plowing under a heavy crop of organic 
matter. This tract was planted to field corn as late 
as June 3d, yet made seventy-five bushels of corn to 
the acre, which was more than double the crop that 
had been gathered from this land before the author 
purchased it. 
Rye was sown in this tract in the corn in the fall 
of 1910 and in the spring of 1911 the corn stalks and 
rye were plowed under and as deep as the disc plows 
