Experiments with Plant Foods 
And Water 
SOIL PREPARATION 
Conditions Change — Requirements Vary 
In sandy soil the ground is loose and does not 
need plowing to loosen the ground. That is the 
reason for one-way disking and trash-farming or 
duck-footing. It stops erosion. Conditions seem to 
favor them. Most of the crops grown there are 
shallow rooted so that most of them are near the 
surface. 
When trash is plowed under, it absorbs water 
from above and below causing the ground to dry 
out faster. When the trash is on top of the ground, 
it prevents heating and drying out and checks 
erosion by water and wind. Results seem to be 
better crops. 
Summer fallowing produces large crops in dry 
land areas. One of the main reasons is the accumu- 
lation of moisture. The moisture rots the trash one 
year but seldom is enough to grow a crop the same 
year. Perhaps summer fallowing also gets rid of 
injurious insects and worms. It is quite possible 
that the time and weather makes needed minerals 
available to plants as well as nitrogen. 
Heavy Ground 
Contrasting Heavy Soil and Light Soil. 
Heavy soil needs occasional deep plowing or 
loosening for many plants, although many plants 
like rather firm seed beds. A firm seed bed starts 
capillary action to work to supply moisture for 
the seed. 
On wet soil the seed will start on top of the 
ground as is often seen in volunteer wheat or oats. 
In dry weather this does not occur. 
In dry weather corn can easily be planted six 
or eight times its length; that is true of most seeds 
grown here. 
Those requiring much moisture grow best on top 
of the ground in moist weather, some of them re- 
quire shade and have a narrow temperature range. 
These conditions can be created here only in en- 
closed boxes with light, heat, and moisture regula- 
tion unless greenhouses are used. 
Where rainfall annually is 60 to 100 inches, 
nurserymen plant trees about the same depth that 
they were before they were dug. In dry, well-drained 
ground, here, we often plant them 12 to 18 inches 
deeper than they were in the nursery. If trees were 
planted 12 to 18 inches deeper where the rainfall 
was very heavy, the trees would die because the 
