FARM MANAGEMENT 47 



thoroughly pulverized seed bed filled with humus has the following 

 advantages : 



(1) It provides more food, because it increases chemical action 

 and multiplies bacterial life in a larger body of soil. 



(2) It stores more moisture and it loses its moisture less rapidly 

 on account of its cooler lower strata and the presence of more humus. 



(3} It increases the number of roots that a plant will throw out. 



(4) It allows plants to root deeper and find permanent moisture. 



(5) It largely obviates the necessity of terracing, because it 

 holds so much water in suspension that heavy rainfalls will go to the 

 bottom and be held by the drier earth above until they can be ab- 

 sorbed by the subsoil. 



(6) Humus enables the soil to store more moisture, increases 

 its temperature, makes it more porous, furnishes plant food, stimu- 

 lates chemical action, and fosters bacterial life. 



Exceptions to General Rules for Deep Fall-Plowing. (1) 

 Never plow below the line of standing water in the soil, because the 

 subsoil can not be pulverized in water. The water level must first be 

 lowered by drainage. 



(2) Do no deep fall-plowing on light sandy land or dry, semi- 

 arid plains, and this especially applies to elevated sandy table-lands 

 and most of the deep sandy lands of the South. Such lands can be 

 helped by adding humus and using a winter cover crop. 



(3) The object of deep fall-plowing is mainly to increase the 

 supply of plant food and the storage of moisture in the soil. While 

 this preparation is of great value on rolling lands and nearly all 

 fields so long in cultivation that plant growth is medium or less, there 

 are some soils that for the production of cotton better not be deep 

 fall-broken, such as very rich and moist river bottoms and the virgin 

 black-land prairies of the Gulf States, for the evident reason that 

 there is too much plant food for cotton already available in the soil, 

 with abundant moisture conditions that make for an excessive 

 growth of the cotton stalks and a consequent decrease in fruitage 

 even under ordinary conditions. For the cotton crop upon such 

 lands it is better to plow very shallow in the spring and bed upon the 

 firm soil. 



(4) Do not plow deeply or subsoil in the spring. The subsoil 

 is generally too full of water, and it is too late for much effective 

 action of the air upon the soil and for the winter rains to firm the 

 subsoil before planting. 



When Should This Plowing Be Done? Always plow in the 

 fall before the winter rains set in. Always use a cover crop of oats, 

 barley, wheat, rye, vetch, or crimson clover, if possible. Every ob- 

 servant farmer has noted that seeds germinate more quickly and that 

 plants grow more rapidly on fall-breaking than on spring-breaking. 

 Fall-plowing renders more plant food ready for use, while the prepa- 

 ration of the land in the fall saves work in the soring, when every- 

 thing on the farm is crowding. A cover crop is a net gain. It 

 keeps the soil from washing, it utilizes the plant food that otherwise 

 might escape into the air, and it adds humus. The soil is improved 



