1896 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
3 
an unusually damp spring for Colorado, and the seed 
came up fairly well; and how those beets grew ! In 
the best of soil, well weeded and faithfully irrigated, 
they made a record. Single beets weighed 18 pounds 
and upwards. It was estimated that they averaged 
20 tons to the acre. They were white and sweet— 
how sweet we had no means of knowing, much to our 
regret, for we did wish to know how much sugar the 
beet would yield raised in Colorado soil. The average 
beet was three 
and four inches 
through. 
The cows had 
never been fed 
roots of any 
kind. Some of 
them ate the 
chopped beets 
easrerly at once; 
others would 
not taste them 
until they were 
coaxed to do so 
by a sprinkling 
of bran. Soon 
they all learned 
to relish them. 
We commenced 
feeding them 
September 2, 
and December 
1 the last beet 
was gone. Each 
day a load was 
plowed out and 
picked up and 
fed. After 
feeding care¬ 
fully awhile, 
the amount was 
increased and 
about 1% ton 
was fed the 
milking c o]w s 
per day, being 
given to them morning and evening. The ground 
planted was not more than six acres, and the crop 
produced has fully taken the place of bran. The 
cows look sleek and nice, and the flow of milk has 
been maintained. The sum that would have helped 
line the miller’s purse, can be spent in a more satis¬ 
factory manner, and this year’s experience determines 
that we shall continue raising sugar beets for cows. 
Gi'eeley, Colo. s. e. h. 
SUBSOILING; WHA T IT IS! WHA T IT DOES ! 
The recent years of severe drought have set west¬ 
ern farmers to 
studying the 
question of 
securing an in¬ 
creased supply 
of moisture for 
their crops. 
Irrigation was, 
in many cases, 
entirely out of 
the question; 
therefore, the 
next best thing 
was to try to 
increase the 
capacity of the 
soil itself to 
hold water in 
reserve. Many 
soils rest on 
a tough hard- 
pan or subsoil 
of clay, which 
is almost as 
waterproof as 
brick. The re- 
sult is that, 
not only are 
the plants un¬ 
able to get 
through it,but 
water cannot 
soak into it 
and be re¬ 
tained to give 
the plants a 
needed drink. The proposition was to reach down 
into this hardpan with some suitable tool, and 
break it up without throwing it on the surface. 
You might take two flower pots, one half full 
of solid concrete, and the other containing small 
pebbles or broken crockery instead. It doesn’t take 
long to see that, with a limited amount of water, the 
second pot would give the better results, because 
these broken bits would hold water while the con¬ 
crete would keep it all in the upper soil where it 
would be sooner evaporated. 
“ Subsoiling,” then, means running a plow, shaped 
somewhat like a pointed shoe, down under the usual 
furrow. It does not turn any of the yellow subsoil 
up into the soil in which the seed is planted, but sim¬ 
ply breaks it up and leaves it where it was before. 
As a rule, the subsoil plow follows in the furrow 
made by the large plow. It takes no more time than 
surface plowing, but it is much harder work, requir¬ 
ing, at least, three good horses. 
The Nebraska Experiment Station has made some 
very interesting experiments to test the value of sub¬ 
soil plowing. Bulletin 43 of this station (Lincoln) 
gives quite an extended account of these experi¬ 
ments. The pictures tell the story very well. Fig. 
3 shows a corn field that was surface plowed only, 
while Fig. 4^hows the growth on similar soil where 
the subsoil plow followed the surface plowing. These 
pictures tell the story far better than a column of 
figures ever could. It is the same man in both pic¬ 
tures. Surface plowing gave shoulder-high corn, 
while subsoiling gave head-high stalks. 
The soil on which these experiments were tried, 
contains little or no coarse sand, but a large amount 
of fine silt and dust. This is almost as fine as clay, 
and will pack firmly—almost like soft brick. This 
prevented the water from soaking readily into the 
ground. Summer rains were largely evaporated be¬ 
fore the water entered the subsoil. In Nebraska, 
large quantities of water fall in a short time, with 
corresponding long seasons of drought, with very 
hot winds that produce an immense evaporation from 
the surface soil. This hard subsoil could not absorb 
and hold enough of this water to benefit the crops in 
a dry time. When it was loosened by the plow, air 
and moisture were both readily admitted. The former 
assisted decom - 
position and 
nitrification, 
thus making 
plant - food 
available,while 
the water was 
held in storage 
where it could 
not evaporate. 
That is why the 
corn in one part 
of the field is 
better than that 
in another. The 
plow added no 
fertility, but 
simply gave air 
and water a 
better chance to 
operate in the 
soil. The bulle¬ 
tin gives the 
following sug¬ 
gestions about 
subsoiling: 
“Subsoil plow¬ 
ing, although a 
means of con¬ 
serving mois- 
tui*e, does not 
produce it, and 
i s, therefoi’e, 
not a substitute 
for irrigation 
where the x’ain- 
fall is too small to produce crops in oi’dinary yeai’S. 
“Where there is a hard, dry subsoil, subsoil plow¬ 
ing is to be recommended. 
“ Where the subsoil is loose, gravelly, or sandy, 
subsoiling is probably unnecessary, or may even be 
injurious. 
“ Do not subsoil when the soil is very wet, either 
above or beneath, as there is great danger of pud¬ 
dling the soil, thus leaving it in worse condition than 
before. This is one of the reasons why it is better to 
subsoil in the fall than in the spring. 
“If the ground be subsoiled in the fall, the winter 
and spring 
rains have am¬ 
ple opportunity 
to soak in, that 
being the sea¬ 
son of greatest 
rainfall and 
least evapora¬ 
tion. 
“Subsoiling in 
the spring may 
be a positive 
detriment if the 
subsoil be ex¬ 
tremely dry, as 
in that case the 
rain water is 
partially re¬ 
moved from the 
young plant by 
the absorption 
of the bottom 
soil. If the 
spring rains 
were heavy this 
would not be a 
disadvantage.” 
The reader 
must under¬ 
stand that sub¬ 
soiling may be 
the worst thing 
he could do on 
soils with a n 
open or gravel¬ 
ly subsoil. It 
is only to be recommended for stiff, heavy soils, where 
water cannot penetrate readily into the “ hardpans.” 
All such soils will most likely be helped by it, espe¬ 
cially in dry sections, and if done in the fall. Before 
subsoiling, dig down into the soil and see exactly 
how it is made xip. Of course it is not necessary 
to subsoil every year. In an ordinary rotation it 1 
might be done with every corn cropi 
CORN WITH SURFACE PLOWING ONLY. COULDN’T STAND THE DRY WEATHER. Fig. 3. 
CORN ON SUBSOILED LAND. WATER HELD IN RESERVE FOR THE DROUGHT. Fig. 4. 
