30 FARM CROPS 



welded with the undersoil so that capillarity can 

 take place by seeding time. In this case the 

 moisture in the storehouse beneath gets into the 

 the seed bed very slowly, thus causing a poor 

 stand as the result. 



And the same condition prevails if the soil is in a 

 bad physical condition. When you turn under 

 clods, coarse manure, and have an otherwise open 

 connection between the surface or seed bed soil 

 and the water reservoir soil, you get little or no 

 help from the water stored beneath. The right 

 preparation of the soil demands cautious observa- 

 tion of these matters in the preparation of the 

 seed bed. 



EARLY PLOWING PROTECTS WATER 

 SUPPLY 



I asked a successful farmer recently why he never 

 had any difficulty in starting his crops. He replied 

 that he always " secured a perfect seed bed ; and 

 the perfect seed bed I always get by early plowing 

 and by repeated workings, using the disk, the peg- 

 tooth harrow and the roller." 



Not least among these things is early plowing. 

 For the furrow-slice itself acts as a mulch and holds 

 in the soil much water that would otherwise escape. 

 Then, too, where weeds grow, water is used up; 

 and when the winds blow over unprotected soil, 

 water is licked up and carried away from soil and 

 seed. 



Early plowing gives' weeds and grass and other 

 debris time enough to rot and decay and to become 

 thoroughly incorporated into the soil. By the time 



