PLOWING IN DRY AREAS 127 



crop that follows. When the plowing of fallow land 

 is deferred until much of the moisture has left the soil, 

 the effect upon the crop that follows will be proportion- 

 ately adverse. In the Plains country, land for fallow, 

 or, as it is frequently called, summer tillage, may be 

 plowed in the spring, but there is seldom opportunity 

 for such plowing, as then it is that the crops must be 

 planted. When land can be broken in May and June, 

 a strong argument is found in favor of such breaking 

 in the fact that sod broken at a season when the grasses 

 are succulent rots much more quickly than if broken 

 when the vegetation is dry and dead. 



The advantages from plowing in the autumn include 

 the following: (1) When the work is done at that season 

 the crops may be sown quite early in the spring, which 

 gives them the benefit of all the moisture that falls 

 subsequently. (2) The turning up of the soil exposes it 

 to all the benefit that comes from weathering influences, 

 as sun, air, rain and frost. The soil is thus mellowed on 

 the surface, which makes easy the forming of a good seed 

 bed. The liberated fertility is thus made easily accessi- 

 ble to the young plants. (3) The soil has time to 

 settle on itself, thus giving the necessary firmness to 

 the lower section of the seed bed. (4) Opportunity is 

 thus furnished for the entrance into the soil of the 

 precipitation that falls on it in the interval between plow- 

 ing and sowing the crop. (5) When ground is thus 

 plowed in the fall the opportunity is furnished to harrow 

 or disc it as soon as this may be done in the spring 

 without injury to the land, a process that will quite ef- 

 fectively prevent the loss of moisture. 



The disadvantages of fall plowing include: (1) The 

 difficulty that is frequently found in doing the work be- 

 cause of the lack of moisture in the soil. This applies 

 more to breaking than to stubble land, but it applies to 

 all land previously broken and plowed shallow. To plow 



