AID FROM DEEP PLOWING 281 



finally to the questions of how to plow, when to plow, 

 when to sow, and what to sow. 



Plowing. There assuredly are soils that are helped 

 enormously by deep plowing. There are other soils 

 that need to be kept religiously "right side up." There 

 are thin soils with an inch or two of top stuff brown with 

 slowly accumulated humus and beneath very dense, cold, 

 poor clay. Suddenly to turn such land over to a depth 

 of 12" or more would be to court defeat unless one had 

 a considerable quantity of manure that one could apply. 

 In event one has the manure and will mix it in well, 

 probably the deep plowing of this hard poor clay would 

 be useful, and might result in much better grass than 

 would come with shallow plowing or mere disking; but 

 to turn suddenly that dense subsoil to the surface and 

 attempt to make in it a seedbed for a tiny grass plant, 

 would be to court disaster. There are soils, however, 

 so deep, with subsoil immediately under them well filled 

 with carbonate of lime, that the deeper they are plowed 

 within reason the better the results will be. On such 

 soils we are plowing 14" deep, and more when laying 

 down to alfalfa, and we would not hesitate to do the 

 same in laying the land down to grasses. As a rule, 

 however, with many exceptions, when making a seedbed 

 for grasses, keep the soil as near right side up as you can 

 and try to have in the upper surface as much decaying 

 vegetable matter as you can get. Imitate the natural 

 sod which is a mass of decaying stems, leaves and roots. 



However deep the land may be plowed, here is a rule 

 that should be inviolable : plow early. If the seeding is 

 to be done in the fall, plow if possible in midsummer. 



