126 DRY FARMING 



deep breaking with adequate cultivation will prove a 

 somewhat less expensive method of preparing sod land, 

 and in many places, especially in dry areas, equally 

 effective. 



Plowing late in June or early in July, rather than at 

 an earlier date, favors the eradication of all creeping- 

 rooted plants for the double reason that subsequent to 

 these dates the rainfall is generally less and the vitality 

 of the plants lower than before. 



For the same reason plowing once is more likely to 

 be adequate in dry areas than in wet ones, and plowing 

 twice more advisable in moist areas than in dry. If a 

 Jong breaking season is contemplated a practice very 

 much to be commended is to break shallow up to the 15th 

 or 20th of June (in the dry parts) and after that date 

 break deeply. The early shallow breaking may then be 

 backset after the sod decays, and the later deeper break- 

 ing may be prepared by disking. Land carrying a tall 

 or dense growth of scrub cannot be satisfactorily plowed 

 a second time in the same season. 



94. Preparation of the Seed Bed. — After killing the 

 native plants of the prairie and storing a supply of 

 moisture for the crop, it is important that the soil be 

 left '.n such condition that the requirements of germina- 

 tion and future growth may be easily and abundantly 

 supplied to the seeds and roots of the crop. To insure 

 that these requirements be met it is necessary (1) that 

 the furrow slice be firmly in contact with the subsoil so 

 that the subsoil moisture may not be prevented from 

 moving to the seed and roots of the crop; (2) that the 

 soil be prepared in such a manner that sufficient moist- 

 ure for germination will be within one to three inches of 

 the surface so that too deep seeding may not be ^neeo^- 



