Progressive Agriculture 27 



as good as last year. We can't cultivate, it's too 

 wet. I see now the correctness of a statement I 

 heard you make three years ago, that sometime 

 the people would realize that the light rainfall of 

 northeast Colorado was a blessing in disguise. 

 I see it now; give me the dryer years. Yours for 

 more knowledge in Tillage, G. W. HAHN." 



CHAPTER III 



PREPARATION BEFORE SEEDING 



The early spring fitting of the soil has been 

 given far too little attention in the past. The 

 control and utility of soil water is and has been 

 the most neglected part in crop production. For 

 years we have depended on the climatic conditions 

 as the ruling factor in crop production; this 

 theory has cost the semi-humid west many a heart- 

 ache and millions of money. The solution of this 

 whole problem is a better knowledge of the 

 necessary physical condition of the soil for the 

 better control of soil water and how by tillage, to 

 obtain it. Some advantages of this have been 

 secured by many farmers through a modest prac- 

 tice of early spring disking; yet the real value 

 of early spring tillage and the continued careful 

 handling of the fields up to planting time, is by 

 no means understood or appreciated by the masses. 

 There is unlimited evidence that it cannot be 

 too strongly advocated and adhered to in almost 



