172 DRY FARMING 



ment if used in time. Generally harrowing and either 

 disking or cultivating should alternate each other. As 

 the tendency of the soil to drift increases, harrowing 

 should be practised less frequently, and the cultivator 

 should gradually replace the disc. 



As to the condition in which the fallow should be left 

 in the fall the type of soil is the determining factor. A 

 fallow left loose and more or less rough on top, or ridged 

 as after a cultivator will not run together so much and 

 is to be preferred on very heavy clay soils that bake. 

 Those soils that slake down in good condition in the 

 spring may be left in small ridges. These will hold 

 some snow, will facilitate mulch making with the har- 

 rows in the spring and, if harrowed at the right time, 

 will result in a better seed bed and no more blowing than 

 the level surface. The chief objection to the smooth sur- 

 face is that it frequently holds very little if any snow and 

 there is therefore a very small accumulation of moisture 

 from this source. 



140. Objections to Fallowing. — But someone says, "I 

 summerfallowed and my crop did not ripen — it got 

 touched with the frost because it was late in maturing", 

 another, "I don't believe in letting one-third of my land 

 worth $40 or $60 an acre lie idle — it isn't good business." 

 Another one says, "The fallow is wasteful of fertility — 

 nitrogen and organic matter — and should be discon- 

 tinued", another "Will not hay crops or hoed crops ac- 

 complish all these things claimed for the fallow?", and 

 another, "I did all these things people advise and in the 

 spring after the seed was sown and just as the crop was 

 coming up, the wind rose and the surface soil, because 

 it was so fine, 'drifted' away and the resulting crop was 

 'patchy', uneven and unsatisfactory", and another, "I 



