PLOWING IN DRY AREAS 141 



ditions that it is not easily possible to lay down definite 

 rules that will serve as safe guides to the farmer. Usu- 

 ally land may be prepared for a crop by discing with 

 less labor than by plowing, and in some instances such 

 preparation will be followed by better results. 



Where -the precipitation is light and the soil is 

 heavy, the practise is not only allowable, but it may be 

 commendable to grow the second grain crop after care- 

 ful summer-fallowing by discing rather than by plow- 

 ing; such preparation involves less labor and it will in 

 most instances hold more moisture. The second crop 

 will not, of course, equal the first, but more grain will 

 result from such a system of cropping than from sum- 

 mer-fallowing and cropping alternate years. 



When the first plowing has been done in the spring 

 and it has been shallow, and is followed by a dry season, 

 it may be better to disc than to plow, whether viewed 

 from the standpoint of the saving of labor or from that 

 of the conservation of moisture. But should the ground 

 possess a fair amount of moisture at the time for plow- 

 ing, then plowing, and more deeply than the first plow- 

 ing, will be preferable. 



When land is so dry that it cannot be plowed to a 

 sufficient depth in the autumn, and when if plowed it 

 may be cloddy, then discing is preferable to plowing, 

 and the following spring a second discing may be in 

 order. 



After a cultivated crop, it is seldom that the plow 

 should be used in making a seed bed in preference to the 

 disc, lest there should be undue loss of moisture, and 

 because of the seed bed less clean that would follow. 

 Lands that are quite light are also frequently better 

 prepared with the disc than the plow. When thus pre- 

 pared, the intermingling stubbles aid somewhat in hin- 

 dering the blowing. 



