VOL. LXVI
 Agrl r.ibimjr u
INDIANAPOLIS, NOV. 18, 1911. ***r*.**wV_i-
NO. 46
DEEP PLOWING.
EXPERIENCE   SHOWS  TIIE  VALUE
OF BEEPER TILLING.
THE  WAY  EUROPEAN  COUNTRIES
DOUBLE THE YIELD.
Recently The Indiana Farmer published on this page some very interesting matter relating to increased yields
of farm crops, which touched chiefly
on better fertilizing- of the soil, both in
rotation of crops and the       	
use of manure and commercial fertilizers. The
purpose now is to impress
upon farmers the necessity for deeper plowing in
order to utilize the fertile
elements below the surface, and to prepare the
soil for producing well in
long dry seasons, as well
as to get rid of the surplus water which sometimes stagnates and prevents plant growth. Deep
plowing tends strongly to
doing both of these things.
First we give some facts
from a bulletin *of the Department of Agriculture
bearing on these questions, which we strongly
commend  to  our readers:
Deeply Plowed Land.
It    has      been    proved
without question that the
roots of plants    penetrate
the  soil deeper    and feed
deeper in    deeply plowed
land.    Thus, in general, it
may be stated  that when
the soil is * plowed    three
inches     deep   the     plants
have three inches of food
when plowed six inches deep they have
six inches of food, and when plowed ten
inches    deep they    have ten    inches of
food.
Plowing three, four, five or six inches deep is only common plowing. In
our instructions nothing less than eight
inches is considered deep plowing. We
are not advocating a single breaking of
eight inches in depth once in two or
three years, but the preparation of an
eight, ten or twelve-inch seed-bed
thoroughly pulverized and filled with
humus. It is not intended here to insist that this should be done at once
in all cases. These are the depths that
must be reached finally to secure the
best crop results. The farmer must
determine how soon he can secure these
depths under his cond'tions.
No principle in agriculture has been
more thoroughly demonstrated than the
value of the deep, thoroughly pulverized seed-bed.
England's Success.
A deeper and more thoroughly pulverized seed-bed was the foundation
upon which England built an improved
agriculture, and this principle has been
generally accepted there for more than
one hundred and sixty years, until the
average production has increased nearly fivefold.
Concretely stated, a deep, thoroughly pulverized seed-bed filled with humus
has the following advantages:
(I) It provides more food, because
it increases chemical  action  and  mul
tiplies bacterial life in a larger body of
soil.
(2) It stores more moisture and it
loses its moisture less rapidly on account of its cooler lower strata and the
presence of more humus.
(3) It increases the number of roots
that a plant will throw out.
(4) It allows plants to root deeper
and find permanent moisture.
(5) It largely obviates the necessity
of terracing, because it holds so much
water in suspension  that    heavy rain-
deep plowing to let the air permeate
the soil so that its bacterial flora will
be increased and its feeding depth increased. The lower depths of the soil
very often have in them much mineral
wealth and less nitrogen. Turn these
soils up, areate them, mix humus
through them and the bacteria will get
busy and all the soil will be made rich,
all be made usable.
Plants drink their food, they do not
eat. Thus the limiting factor in crop
production  is soil moisture.
the soil. Drain it, first, then it will
more truly retain the useful film moisture that feeds plants.
Plowing to the Subsoil.
The experience of a farmer in deep
plowing is given by himself in the following:
I was informed by the most experienced farmers of this section that I
would not raise anything for several
years if I turned up much sub-soil, my
land  being  classed  as  up  Beech  land,
        having  clay  sub-soil  with
hard pan about three feet
below the surface and had
previously been plowed
about six inches deep. Accordingly, I ventured cautiously, plowing thirty-
three acres about 10 inches deep. Ten acres
were sown in oats—twelve
were planted in corn and
eleven in potatoes. Thero
is nothing about any of
these crops to indicate
that the damage has been
done by turning up some
sub-soil. All the difference
to date is in favor of the
deeper plowing. I also
plowed one acre of three
year old alfalfa full 16
inches deep. The corn
growing on this acre is by
far the best I have.
The oats on a strip of
ground plowed 14 to 16
inches deep was a little
more plump in grain and
a little longer in the
straw. I also plowed a
strip of ground 16 inches
deep for potatoes.
Field of Corn Half of Which Soil Was Plowed Deep and Properly  Fertilized   and the   Other   Half
Plowed Shallow and not Fertilized.
From Anotlier Farmer.
falls will go to the bottom and be held
by the drier earth above until they can
be absorbed by the sub-soil.
(6) Humus enables the soil to store
more moisture, increases its temperature, makes it more porous, furnishes
plant food, stimulates chemical action,
and fosters bacterial life.
Joseph E. Wing on Deep Plowing.
Why, if plowing three inches deep
helps, may it help more to plow thirteen inches deep, or as deep as one can?
Well, a soil is a curious thing. It is not
a mere anchorage for plants, to hold
them from blowing over. It is a laboratory, a storehouse, a place where miracles are worked. A soil is a living
thing. It has in it, if it is a good soil,
a lot of bacteria. These bacteria perform miracles. They make food for
plants. Bacteria cannot exist—the useful sorts—without air and moisture.
A Soil is Fertile
Just in proportion as it is filled with
useful bacteria; that is, one can take a
soil and leave one-half of a certain field
saturated with water, the pores of the
earth closed, as the soil is in a tight,
close condition; and put the other half
in order by drainage and deep plowing
to let in the air, and he will get twice,
maybe four times the crop from the
drained and deeply-plowed soil. Drainage and deep plowing should go hand
in hand. There is not much use doing
either unless the other is done as well.
That, then, is the    first principle of
Doubles Production.
Deeply-plowed and well-pulverized
soil retains moisture very much better
than the hard soil. It holds more
moisture to begin with and it is much
more slowly evaporated. So there is
dual advantage from deep plowing, the
rendering available of much more plant
food and the use of much more moisture. These facts explain why crops
are frequently doubled by the one factor of correct plowing and preparation
of the soil.
Deep plowing should be accompanied
by good drainage and the turning in of
vegetable matter. Bacteria feed and
thrive in decaying vegetable matter.
When there is
Sufficient Lime in the Soil.
To keep it sweet then the best sorts of
bacteria abound, the kinds that secrete
nitrogen which they gather from the
air. Here, then, is the secret of great
fertility, the sweetening of the soil with
lime, the turning in of vegetable matter, good drainage, then very deep
plowing and thorough pulverization of
the soil.
Deep Plowing In Europe.
In France it is customary to plow
twice as deep as in America, and the
crops reaped are more than double
what we receive. This is a hungry
world. We have a duty, we land owners, to help feed this world. We have
a great opportunity.    Plow deep. Feed
  Another     farmer     who
tried deep plowing writes that part of
his field was plowed 12 inches deep and
a part of it 14 inches, all the same quality of land, and that while the part
plowed 12 inches deep yielded 58 bushels of corn per acre, that plowed 14 inches gave him 63 bushels per acre. In
the past several years with ordinary
plowing of 6 to 7 inches deep the same
field yielded on an average 42 bushels
per acre. He says that he is now convinced that 12 to 14 inches deep plowing will pay, and that he has turned
over a new leaf in this respect, and says
with proper fertilizing and deep plowing he can grow 75 to 80 bushels of
corn per acre on this same field. He
also says the moisture in this deep
plowed field was more ample the past
dry season than on the shallow plowed
land, and that deep plowing has this
advantage also in dry seasons.
Meeting  the Farmer  Half Way.
The ingenuity of the factory is keeping right up with agricultural experia-
ence. There was enough fertility in
our new and virgin soils to produce
well, but as they grow older and show
exhaustion it has been found that both
greater fertility and better mechanical conditions of the soil are found by
deeper plowing, and so the factory
comes with its devices in the nick of
time to supply this demand. As the
Indiana Farmer has shown in the past
few weeks, these new deep plowing facilities, both in power and newly devis-