48 ARID AGRICULTURE. 



few and small air spaces underneath, and with 

 the furrow slice crushed and pulverized as much 

 as possible. There should be no skips and the 

 cut and cover method is absent. To do good 

 plowing the furrow should be cut no wider than 

 tho plow-share, and to be on the safe side good 

 farmers cut an inch or two narrower than the 

 size of their plows. The plow should be kept 

 sharp and the lays properly shaped. A factor 

 in good plowing is to do the work when the soil 

 is in the right condition. This will differ on 

 every farm. Heavy clay soils must not be 

 plowed too wet. There is little danger of work- 

 ing our more sandy soils when wet. Western 

 soils may be plowed when quite dry and left in 

 condition to absorb the first rains or melting 

 snow. The lime in them insures flocculation and 

 there is little danger of dry puddling. 



WHEN TO Late fall or early spring plowing is practiced 



PLOW to absorb moisture. In some parts of the West, 



where the rainfall comes mainly in the winter 

 season, the soils may get so hard and dry that 

 until the rains come it is not possible to plow 

 them in the fall. Where the rainfall comes in 

 the spring and summer the soils are usually in 

 such condition that they may be plowed in the 

 fall, though they are sometimes very dry. A 

 comparatively new practice is to disc the sod or 

 stubble immediately after a crop is harvested to 

 save the moisture and keep the soils in condition 



