18 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



lands which for two years past have not 

 ripened a sunflower seed. Evidently the 

 seed have lain dormant in the soil for four 

 or more years, deeply buried by an extra 

 deep plowing in the fall of '93 and resur- 

 . rected the present springby a similar course. 

 Deep plowing, as ordinarily practiced, is 

 not satisfactory where there is heavy clay 

 subsoil; too much subsoil is exposed on the 

 surface. This is doubly bad where water 

 is applied to grain crops as the clay will 

 dissolve, puddle the surface of the ground 

 and bake so hard that a second irrigation 

 brings little relief to the crops. 



BENEFITS OF SUBSOILING. 



In 1895, ten acres in which potatoes 

 were to be planted were subsoiled to a 

 depth of eleven inches. The single sub- 

 soil plow was used, drawn by three horses, 

 and following a turning plow also drawn 

 by three horses. Considering that two 

 men and six horses were employed, and 

 that one and a half acres per day was a 

 daily average, it was expensive work. In 

 irrigating it was found that much more 

 water was required to submerge the soil 

 than on lands not subsoiled. This piece of 

 land is now sown to barley, and gives 

 promise of being an extraordinary crop. 

 (The tract has never been manured to the 

 best of our information.) Upon receiving 

 a prospectus of the Secretary plow, made 

 by the John Deere Company, one was 

 ordered and has been used upon fifteen 

 acres of spring plowing. 



This plow is a combination of the disk 

 and subsoil plow, and, by a single opera- 

 tion, the ground is subsoiled each two 

 inches in ten, and the top soil completely 

 pulverized by the action of the disk plow. 

 Its strongest point is that the wedge 

 principle involved in all turning plows is 

 applied only to the two-inch strip under 

 the subsoiler, the disk working above the 

 subsoiler, and cutting and partially turn- 

 ing ten inches, while the subsoiler works 

 two inches in width. 



The application of water to the soil 

 thus treated this spring will be watched 

 with the keenest interest and it is a fore- 

 gone conclusion that it will absorb at 

 least double the amount of water that soil 

 fitted with the old-style turn plow does. To 

 get the full effects of such moisture 

 deposition, it should be coupled with a 

 high state of preparation of soil prior to 

 seeding, so complete as to pulverize all 

 clods and lumps; subsequent to seeding, 



the ground should be rolled to compact 

 the surface and hasten germination, and 

 prior to the appearance of the young 

 blades of grain the ground should be gone 

 over with a fine tooth harrow each way, so 

 as to supply a dust blanket to prevent un- 

 due evaporation of moisture. 



It is of the utmost importance that 

 water be used at the earliest possible 

 moment after grain is well up. There is 

 then an abundance of water and, unless 

 storage reservoir facilities are provided, 

 the farmer must daily see water run to 

 waste, the use of which in a very brief 

 time would mean a difference between 

 failure and success. 



Upon this same subsoiled land, well- 

 rotted barnyard manure is now being ap- 

 plied upon growing grain crops with the 

 Kemp & Burpee manure spreader. This 

 gives an even distribution of manure, no 

 lumps being thrown out, all such being 

 well pulverized by the revolving cylinder, 

 armed with sharp pointed teeth which tear 

 all lumps to pieces. 



This spreader was used in 1895, until 

 the grain began to joint, and though it 

 seemed as if the battered and bruised 

 grain would never recover from the severe 

 treatment inflicted in driving the wagon 

 over the fields; yet, in three days time 

 after the application of the water, one 

 could not tell where the spreader had 

 gone, save by the deep rich color and the 

 rank growth of the grain. 



Subsoiling, thorough preparation of 

 the soil before and after seeding, a diver- 

 sity of crops, the use of clovers and root 

 crops, and top dressing of grain fields 

 must all be practiced by him who expects 

 to make the most of a limited water 

 supply. 



To one unaccustomed to the use of 

 water it may seem paradoxical to urge a 

 course that will require more water to 

 saturate the soil. It is, however, true 

 " the more haste the less speed" in this 

 case. One should endeavor to make a 

 crop with one irrigation, as it is exceed- 

 ingly difficult to make up to crops by a 

 second irrigation that which they have 

 failed to receive in the first use of water. 

 In mountain regions the second or third 

 irrigation has a tendency to unduly pro- 

 long the growth of grain and to expose it 

 to the ill effects of early frosts. Hence 

 the important part played by deep culture 

 in the conservation of moisture. 



