258 



THIRD ANNUAL SESSIONS 



Deep Plowing. 



that comes here to dry farm without the requisite knowledge, plows 

 about six or seven inches, and the roots of his crops go that deep and 

 uo deeper, but if you can persuade this man to plow deep, he will have 

 a much better chance of raising a crop and also of accumulating some 

 moisture in the sub-soil for succeeding crops. 



Depth of Moisture. 



"But the most significant fact of all is this: If you can secure 

 three feet of moist soil by planting time, and this soil is twelve to 

 fifteen per cent, moist, the roots of your crops will go into it and you 

 are then bringing into action three feet of soil instead of seven inches. 



"This is the whole secret of raising thirty and forty bushel crops 

 instead of fifteen and twenty. 



Percentage of IVioisture. 



"The roots of trees, small grain and corn all vary as to their pene- 

 trative qualities. I find that tree roots will penetrate almost any- 

 thing soft or hard that contains even a low pencentage of moisture. 

 Small grain crops come next, and will go three or four feet into a 

 tub-soil that contains ten to twelve per cent, of moisture, but the 

 roots of corn work laterally as soon as they strike the hard pan, and 

 it requires some fourteen to sixteen per cent of water in the subsoil 

 to coax them into it; therefore there exists the greatest need of plow- 

 ing all corn land as deep as possible to facilitate the downward trend 

 of the roots. 



Capillary Action. 



"I find that Capillarity works much more freely downward with 

 the help of gravity, than upward. In my clay loam soil, which I have 

 carefully tested, I find there is no upward movement of moisture by 

 capillarity unless it is about fifteen per cent, wet or over; on the 

 other hand the moisture seems to work downwards, even when the 

 percentage is very low, but this exact percentage I have not yet been 

 able to determine. I am convinced however, that much has been at- 

 tributed to capillarity which is really due to the movements of the 

 water vapor in the pores of the earth, both upward and downward, 

 especially in summer when the ground becomes warm and converts 

 some of its moisture into vapor, which we hold down by cultivation, 

 the earth being much more porous than is generally supposed. 



Deep Plowing. 



"The practical depth I believe, for the small farmer to plow, is 

 just as deep as he can go with one team of three or four horses, with- 

 out keeping an extra team and man for sub-soiling. 0,n my ranch, this 

 depth seems to be about ten to twelve inches. My position on sub- 

 soiling is this: it undoubtedly produces more grain to the acre, but 

 the question, for the farmer to settle is: Does the extra amount bar- 



