MANAGEMENT OP SPECIAL SOILS 269 



The drying out of the top layer cannot be prevented but 

 the formation of a fine "dust" mulch may be — at least 

 on most soils. The use of the unfortunate term "dust 

 mulch" in so much of the Western Canadian and 

 American agricultural literature, is responsible for at 

 least a portion of the excessive drifting that has occurred 

 in recent years. The "dust" mulch has no place in 

 the agriculture of any dry country where high winds 

 prevail. A rough cloddy surface developed by deep 

 cultivation and preferably left in small ridges by a 

 cultivator is to be preferred. 



On drifting soils the cultivator should take the place 

 of the disc and harrows on the fallow field. Harrowing ' 

 once after the plow, in order to level the surface, is all 

 the harrowing such a fallow needs if the soil is prevented 

 from baking or cracking and the weeds prevented 

 from growing by the use of the cultivator. More care 

 in plowing in order to secure a level surface, and the 

 use of the packer (preferably the sub-surface type 

 packer or a disc run straight) behind the plow, are 

 practices that are making harrowing less necessary and 

 are proving to be more efficacious in lessening soil drift- 

 ing. A ridged surface such as is left by the cultivator 

 provides a refuge for the fine particles in the bottom of 

 the narrow ridges, and in practice is found to result in 

 less blowing and in the production of greater returns 

 than a smooth surface'. "V^Jorking the soil when it is dry 

 should be discouraged. When it is slightly moist below 

 the surface a more granular or lumpy top can be de- 

 veloped than if tilkd when dry. On smooth fields that 

 are free from stones the revolving rod cultivator offers 

 much promise. On the heavy clays of the Regina plains 

 cultivating the fallow in the spring with a narrow tooth 

 cultivator is found to lessen drifting. 



