Progressive Agriculture 63 



from the same amount of water, but begin your 

 experiments with care and with the idea that you 

 should continue the preparatory tillage as late as 

 you can with reasonable assurance of time from 

 planting for the plants to reach the maturity 

 most desirable for harvesting that specific crop 

 whether it be corn, cane, fodder crops, potatoes 

 or garden. Work out the problem of the lateness 

 of preparation for each farm and crop by small 

 experiments carefully handled and results re- 

 corded. Some seasons the continuous hot weather 

 comes earlier than other seasons and the soil may 

 reach the ideal warm conditions earlier, when 

 earlier planting may be advisable. But let us 

 again emphasize that the value of later planting 

 comes from the farmer's ability to destroy more 

 weeds and store more water in the soil and further 

 improve the condition of the seed bed under which 

 conditions a greater amount of plant food is made 

 available, and a much more rapid growth attained. 



As has been stated before, the advantages are 

 many why the growing season should be made as 

 short as possible. Some of these might be stated 

 as follows: 



Less danger of injury from unfavorable con- 

 ditions, such as hot winds, storms, hail, insect pests. 



Greater opportunity to destroy weeds and a 

 smaller opportunity for the weeds to take advant- 

 age of the field crops and crowd them out. 



Far less danger of stunting the growth, a 

 stronger, healthier plant because of quick growing, 

 therefore, a greater resistance to plant disease 

 and increased certainty of larger yield. 



