THE BENEFITS OF TILLAGE 105 



where the farmer has cultivated least. Just be- 

 neath the loose dry soil of his cultivated field he 

 finds moist soil, with plant roots revelling in it. 

 On an uncultivated field he may have to dig down 

 a foot or more before he finds moist soil. Even a 

 casual examination of the farms in any community 

 will convince a man that the operation which con- 

 tributes most largely to success or failure in farming 

 is tillage, chiefly in its relation to the saving of sou 

 water. 



Tillage to Increase the Water-holding Capacity 

 of a Soil. Besides saving water by surface tillage 

 tne farmer can increase the capacity of his soil to 

 hold water by deep tillage, as by fall plowing and 

 by subsoiling. These operations loosen the soil 

 to a depth of 5 to 14 inches and thereby enable it 

 to retain more of the water that falls upon it as rain 

 or snow, a large part of which runs off as surface 

 drainage when the soil is hard, carrying with it, 

 perhaps, much fine soil. The shallow plowing so 

 common in parts of the South is responsible for 

 much of the loss of soil by washing in this region. 



Heavy clay soils and other soils that are quite 

 compact, so that they absorb water very slowly, 

 are benefited by subsoiling and fall plowing. Soils 

 containing a large amount of sand are not bene- 

 fited by this treatment they are already too loose. 

 The methods of plowing and subsoiling are con- 

 sidered at length in the following chapter. 



DRY FARMING 



An important phase of tillage, in its relation to 

 the saving of soil water, is the farm practice now 

 commonly called "dry farming." In reality all 

 farming that does not make use of irrigation is dry 



