152 One Thousand Questions in Agriculture 



attend them. This uncertainty is the reason why people so gener- 

 ally disagree as to which is the best practice, and they are right in 

 disagreeing. 



Dry Plowing and Sowing. 



/ dry-plowed my grain -field to a depth averaging seven inches; it 

 turned up very rough. I then disked and harroived it, but it is still very 

 rough. I intended to drill the seed, zvait for sufficient rain, and harrow 

 to a satisfactory condition, but have been advised to put no implement 

 on after the drill, as a harrow would spoil the work done by the drill, 

 and a slab or roller would cause the ground to bake. If I wait for rain 

 to work the soil before drilling, it will bring the seeding too late. 



You have probably done a pretty good job of dry work. If the 

 land is still too rough for the drill, we should broadcast and harrow 

 again. It is not desirable to harrow afler the drill, and to roll or 

 rub is likely to smooth too much, because the land would bake or 

 crust after the heavy rains. This would cause loss of moisture and 

 it is therefore better to leave the surface a little rough. You can roll 

 lightly after the grain is up, if the surface seems to need closing a 

 little. 



Artesian Water. 



I have a large tract of adobe soil, a black clay top soil. For about 

 five months in the year there is not sufficient water on the place. I have 

 sunk wells in different parts, but with very poor results, the further we 

 luent down the drier and harder the soil got. What little water we did 

 obtain was unfit for domestic use. Can you give me an idea as to what 

 might be the result of an artesian well in such soil? 



Artesian water has nothing to do with the soils. It is a deeper 

 proposition than that. Artesian water comes from gravel strata 

 overlaid with impervious layers of rock or clay in such a way that 

 water in the gravel is under pressure because the gravel leads up 

 and away to some point where water is poured into it by rain falling 

 or snow melting on mountain or high plateau. As the water cannot 

 get out of this gravel until you punch a hole in its lid, its efifort 

 will be to shoot up to something less than the elevation at which it 

 gained entrance to this gravel — as soon as your puncture gives it a 

 chance. Geologists who know the locality may be able to tell you 

 that you have little or no chance, but no one can tell you whether 

 you have a good chance or not until he has tested the matter by 

 boring. The quality of the artesian water is determined by its dis- 

 tant source and the bad water you have found is therefore no indi- 

 cation of the quality of what may be below it. No one should enter 

 an artesian undertaking, except to tap a stratum of known depth, 

 without a long purse. Probably one in a thousand of the bores 

 made into the crust of the earth yields as many gallons of artesian 

 water as gallons of various liquids used in boring it — and yet some 

 of them are good wells to pump from because they pierce other strata 

 carrying water, but not under pressure causing it to rise. 



