FALL AND SPRING PLOWING 211 



is not sufficient to saturate the soil. If the soil is left 

 in the bare, hard condition resulting from the removal 

 of a crop of maize, wheat or barley, a large amount of 

 water may be lost by evaporation during the fall months. 



For the average farmer in humid regions where the 

 winter rainfall is sufficient to saturate the soil, early 

 spring plowing, coupled with tillage, is much more 

 important. Not only may moisture be conserved, but 

 the soil is worked at the stage when it yields most 

 readily to pulverization. Fallow land, and bare stubble 

 land of fine-textured soil, are most benefited, since they 

 become compact to the very surface as a result of the 

 winter rain and snow, and are therefore in condition 

 for the most rapid loss of water. They should be plowed 

 as early as practicable without injury to their structure. 

 At the Wisconsin station, two adjacent pieces of land 

 very uniform in character were plowed seven days apart. 

 At the time the second plot was plowed, it was found to 

 have lost 1.75 inches of water from the surface four feet 

 in the previous seven days; while the earlier plowed 

 piece had actually gained, doubtless by increased capil- 

 larity, a slight amount of water over that it contained 

 when plowed. There was a gain of nearly two inches 

 of water in the root zone as a result of plowing one week 

 earlier, enough to produce 1,500 pounds of dry matter 

 in maize per acre, if properly conserved. 



In arid and semi-arid regions, and in other sections 

 where heavy soil is plowed in the late summer, and 

 especially where a large crop of green manure or a large 

 application of coarse strawy manure is plowed under 

 at any season, it is essential that the lower part of the 



