85 



endeavour being to get it at least 16 or 18 inches below the surface. It 

 is often advisable by this means to break up a hardpan formed, per- 

 haps, by long-continued ploughing at a uniform depth or existing as a 

 natural formation below the surface. 



Subsoiling is likely to be beneficial, under the prevailing climatic 

 conditions east of the Mississippi River, in any soils of medium or of 

 heavy texture, provided the land has fairly good drainage. In the 

 semiarid region of the West it is likely to be very beneficial upon 

 many classes of soils, especially where the rainfall occurs in heavy 

 and infrequent showers and where it is necessary to increase the 

 capacity of the soils to absorb water readily and rapidly. 



Subsoiling, to be efficient, should be done a sufficient length of time 

 before the crops are planted to insure to the soil a thorough soaking 

 with rain ; otherwise it may injure rather than improve the soil con- 

 ditions for the first year. Subsoiling, by stirring the land to an 

 unusual depth, favours the drying out of the soil, so that if it is not 

 supplemented by a soaking rain before the seed is put in, the ground 

 is drier than if the work had not been done. 



There are few places in the West where this practice has been carried 

 on long enough and under conditions necessary for beneficial effect. 

 One such place, however, is at Geneva, Nebr., where subsoiling has 

 been intelligently carried on for a number of years under nusery 

 stock. The records of soil moisture which have been made at that 

 place by this division through the present season show that on the 

 average, through the months of June, July, and August, there was 10 

 per cent of moisture in the soil to a depth of 12 inches where ordinary 

 methods of cultivation had been used, and 15 per cent where the land 

 had been previously subsoiled No crops were growing on the soils 

 from which the record were kept in either case. This difference of 

 5 per cent in the amount of water, or 50 per cent increase over that 

 in the uncultivated soil, is a very large amount and would doubtless 

 have a very important effect upon the crop yield. This is confirmed 

 by the actual yields on the two soils, as reported by Younger & Co., 

 on whose farm the observations were made. 



Further work will be done along these lines by this division, to 

 establish these general principles. In the meantime great care and 

 judgment should be exercised in deciding upon whether it is advisable 

 to adopt this practice in every case. 



CULTIVATION. 



Cultivation as here used means the actual stirring of the surface 

 after the crop is planted, either with a plough, cotten sweep cultivator, 

 harrow, hoe, or other implement The object of cultivation is two- 

 fold — to destroy weeds and thus prevent the great drain which they 

 make upon the soil moisture, and to loosen and pulverize the surface, 

 leaving it as a fine mulch, the object of which is to prevent evapora- 

 tion. The first of these objects needs no further comment here. As 

 regards the second object of cultivation, the result to be attained is 

 to have the surface covered with a fine, dry mulch before the dry spell 

 sets in, so as to conserve the water in the soil during dry periods. 



Cultivation is usually most effective in the early stages of the 

 growth of crops especially during the growth of the vegetative parts 



