Planting 135 



the frost goes out. This water can seldom be fully 

 replaced by later rains. Its conservation may often 

 turn the scale between success and failure in droughts 

 late in the season. Fall plowing has here an advantage 

 over spring plowing because it is possible to cover many 

 acres with harrow or disk in a few days as soon as the 

 ground can be worked without injury in the spring. 

 By going over fall-plowed potato ground once before 

 sowing spring grain, the saving in moisture for the potato 

 crop will more than pay for any loss of grain by slightly 

 delayed sowing. 



TILLAGE TOOLS 



The plow is the standard implement of tillage. Ex- 

 cept in special cases, nothing has been found to equal 

 its work. The common plows used in the East and 

 South are drawn by one, two or three horses or mules. 

 The two-bottom reversible sulky plow is coming much 

 into use in the East. It is heavier and more expensive 

 than the common plow, but will work better in soils of 

 varying hardness, and in plowing alfalfa sod. This 

 reversible sulky plow, like the ordinary two-bottom gang 

 sulky used in the central West, does poorer work in plow- 

 ing imder straw, stalks and the like than the ordinary 

 walking plow. The plow can turn under sods, and so 

 forth, more perfectly than any other tool, and its use 

 distributes surface organic matter. The jointer enables 

 sod and trash to be buried more completely. 



The t}TDe of harrow to be used depends upon the work 

 to be done. Harrows may be used merely to fine and 

 smooth a rough surface, like the spike-tooth harrow, or 

 may be designed to tear up and fine the soil to consider- 

 able depth, like the disk and spring-tooth types. The 



