CROP YIELDS AND PROPER CULTURE 37 



but rather the soil should be mellow and well pul- 

 verized only about as deep as the seed is planted. 

 Below that depth the soil should be firm and well 

 settled, making a good connection with the subsoil, 

 so that the soil water stored in the subsoil may be 

 drawn up into the surface soil. The firm soil be- 

 low the seed, well connected with the subsoil, sup- 

 plies moisture to the germinating seed and the 

 young plantlet, while the mellow soil above the 

 seed allows sufficient circulation of air to supply 

 oxygen and favors the warming of the soil, gather- 

 ing the heat of the sunshine during the day and 

 acting as a blanket to conserve the soil heat, main- 

 taining a more uniform temperature of the soil dur- 

 ing the night. The mellow soil mulch above the 

 seed conserves the soil moisture, acting as a mulch 

 to keep the moisture from reaching the surface, 

 where it would be rapidly lost by evaporation. The 

 same condition favors the growth of the young 

 shoot upward into the air and sunshine. 



The too loose, deep seed bed is almost wholly 

 dependent upon sufficient rains to germinate the 

 seed and start the young plants. In such a seed bed 

 drouth is very apt to injure the plants, because of 

 the rapid drying out of the soil to the depth of the 

 plowing. In the loose seed bed, wheat and grass 

 for instance, is not only apt to burn out in the sum- 

 mer, but it is also more apt to freeze out in winter, 

 than wheat grown in the ideal seed bed described 

 above. 



The seed bed for corn, cotton, potatoes and sim- 

 ilar crops should be deeper and more mellow than 

 the seed bed for small seeds, and the early cultiva- 

 tion of the corn and cotton land previous to plant- 

 ing may cause a marked increase in yield, as shown 



