48 



Campbell's 1902 Soil Culture Manual. 



are required and when the rains are ample and timely two or three ordinary 

 cultivations produce a good crop of com. But even there they are begin- 

 ning to learn the value of conserving the water by more frequent cultivation, 

 because of dry periods that are liable to come at any time. With us in 

 the semi-arid belt more attention must be given to the preparation of the 

 ground. We cannot depend upon heavy rains to aid us in dissolving and 

 settling our soil, consequently we must give close attention to every part 

 of the work. The first thing in order is the early discing which should be 

 a double discing in order to thoroughly pulverize the surface, bearing in 

 mind that every act must be to store and pi ovide the greatest possible 

 amount of water in the soil. Early discing covers the two important points 

 previously referred to, that of preventing the evaporation and opening up 

 the surface to receive the later rains. This done, we simply wait for the 

 proper time of further fitting and planting, always being in readiness, how- 

 ever, to loosen the surface at any time, should we get a rain of any magnitude. 

 There is some diversity of opinion as to whether the check-rower or lister 

 is preferable, more particularly in the lower altitudes. We favor the 

 lister in the higher altitudes, or in the northern sections, where the nights 

 are cooler, which results in heavier stoolingor suckering. These additional 

 shoots are very detrimental to the corn crop, especially so, should we have 

 a dry season, but for the more humid sections we are not yet fully in favor 

 of the lister. 



THE LISTER. 



The lister has one advantage that is especially desirable. By filling 

 the furrows about the time the shoots begin to show and thereby covering 

 them up we may destroy them completely, which is easily and quite readily 

 done. Another advantage in listing in the more arid sections is that of 

 getting the roots deeper into the ground. The higher the altitude and the 

 drier the atmosphere, the deeper is it necessary to cultivate in order to 

 produce a deeper mulch to prevent evaporation. In using the lister on 

 ground where the moisture has been carefully preserved by discing and 

 harrowing in the early spring it is quite important to follow the lister with 

 some tool to thoroughly pulverize the moist soil that is thrown up (as such 

 soil immediately assumes a dry and very hard condition which is after- 

 wards hard to manage). The best tool for this purpose is the weeder, the 

 long, flexible teeth lap down on the side of the furrow or ridge as thrown 

 up between the rows and quite completely pulverize the large clods that 

 are thrown up by the lister, leaving a perfect circle with a nice fine mulch 

 over the entire surface. This puts your ground in magnificent shape, es- 

 pecially in the sand loam soils of the semi-arid belt, so that you can con- 

 tinue the use of the weeder by going lengthways of the ridges and com- 

 pletely destroy the weeds before they assume any size, keeping your mulch 

 in perfect condition to prevent evaporation, going over the ground after 



