Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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* c * * * DEEP FALL PLOWING AND * THE SEED BED. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * At the commencement of the Far mers' Cooperative Demonstration Work in the Southern States it was found necessary to outline the funda mental principles of good farming and to insist that the tillers of the soil should beegme familiar with them and practice them as a first step in the betterment of farm life. We have previously stated these first principles, but possibly they should be more fully explained. Prepare a deep and thoroughly pul verized seed bed, well drained; break in the fall to a depth of 8, 10, or 12 inches, according to the soil, with implements that will not bring too much of the subsoil to the surface. (The foregoing. depths should be reached gradually.) The presence of heat, air, and mois tare is essential to ehemical and germ action in the prepartion of plant food in the soil. The depths to which these penetrate the soil depend upon the depth of the plowing, provided the soil is well drained. There is no use in plowing down into a subsoil full of water. It has been proved beyond ques tion 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 3 inches deep the plants have 3 inches of food; when plowed 6 inches deep, they have 6 inches of food, and when plowed 10 inches deep they have 10 inches of food. The fact that the bottom portions of the plowed land are not as rich in avai! able plant food as the top portions shows the necessity of getting more air and heat down to them by deeper tillage. The most essential condition for fertile soil is a constant supply of moisture, so that a film of water can envelop the soil particles and absorb nutritive elements. The hair roots of plants drink this for nourishment. If there is any more than enough to serve as films for the soil particles and capillary water, there is too I much and it should be drained off. This can be determined by digging a hole 20 inebhes deep. If there is stand ing water in .the bottom of the 'hole, it indicates too much water in the soil or subsoil. The capacity of a given soil to hold film and capillary moisture de pends upon how finely it is pulveriz ed and upon the amount of humus in it. Unplowed lands retain but little 'water. Thoroughly pulverized soil 3 inches deep can not store enough to make a erop. In all Southern States there are every year periods of drought, some times not serious. but generally suf ficiently protracted to reduce the crop. The remedy for this is increased stor age capacity for moisture. This can be accomplished by deep and thorough tillage and by filling the soil with humus (partly decayed vegetation). The effect of deep tillage has been explained. The effect of humus is to greatly increase the storage capacity of soils for water and to reduce evap oration. A pound of humus will store seven and one-half times as much moisture as a pound of sand. and the sand will lose its water by evapora tion three and one-half times more rapidly than the humus. A clay soil will store only about one-fourth as much moisture as humus, and will lose it by exaporation twice as rapid Plants use an enormous quantity of water. An acre of good corn will absorb and evaporate during its growth nearly '10 inches of water. About three-fourths of this amount will be required during ,the last sev enlty-five days of its growth, or at the rate of 2 2-5 inches of water a month. This is in addition to evaporation from the soil, which, even with the retarding influence of a dust mulch, will amount to several inches each month in midsummer. In case the land is plowed only 3 or 4 inches deep, though thoroughly pulverized, it will store an amount of moisture en tirely insufficient to supply crop re quirements in any protracted drought. These shallow and generally poorly prepared seed beds are the principal cause of the low corn yields in the South, and they affect the cotton yields similarly, but not so much, be cause cotton is a more drought-resist ing plant than corn. If planting is done at all, it is folly to prepare a seed bed so shallow as to bring about the almost total loss of the crop some years and a reduced crop every year. \Mny armers plow or cultivate ther -rnearly as deeply as they brak (hir hand in preparing a seed the pulariemed and aired soil. Roots -onup a large space. If all the roots of a single vigorous cornstalk were c placed end to end thev would reach a more than a mile, and if allowed by p the plowing they will fill the soil to t a considerable depth and feed in all c portions of it. The Root System of Cozn. At the Wisconsin Agricultural Ex- s periment Station it was found that t when corn was 3 feet high the roots s had penetrated the soil for 2 feet and e thoroughly occupied it. At maturity I the roots were 4 feet deep. At this c time the upper laterals were about v 4 inches from the surface. a At the North Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station the corn roots had penetrated 3 1-2 feet deep and 1: fully occupied the ground ninety day.. t after planting. p At the Minnesota Agricultural Ex periment Station the corn roots had 9 penetrated 12 inches deep and had a spread laterally 1 inches eighteen 1 days after planting. In most portions i: of the South nothing less than an 8-inch seed bed will insure vren a t fair corn crop, and 10 inches is safer. t Some soils may require more. From c 6 to 8 inches of prepartion for cot- p ton coresponds to 8 and 10 inches for p corn, so far as the requirements of c the plant are concerned. d What is Deep Plowing? Plowing 3, 4. 5. or 6 inches deep v is only common plowing. In our in- u struetions nothing less than 8 inches e is considered "deep" plowing. We b are not advocating a single plowing n of 8 inches in depth once in two or three years, but the prepartion of an 8-inch seed bed thoroughly pulveriz ed and filled with humus. It should be plowed and cross plowed to that depth, or if cross plowing can not be safely done on account of hills then it should be plowed twice in the same direction and disked thoroughly or the smoothing harrow repeatedly used. When Should This Plowing be Done? Always plow in the fail before the P winter rains set in: the earlier after the first of October the better. Al- 1 ways use a cover crop of oats, bar ley, wheat. or rye. if possible. Every b observant farmer has noted that seeds germinate more quickly and that plants grow more rapidly on fall breaking. Fall plowing renders more plant food ready for use, while the preparation of the land in the fall 1 saves work in the spring, when every thing on the farm is crowding. A cover crop is a net gain. It keeps the 1 soil from washing, utilizes the plant food that otherwise might escape into I2 the air, and it adds humus. The soil I is improved by the crop and winter t grazing is provided. In plowed lan'd I the plant food is less than in unplow- 12 ed land; more plant food.may be pro duced and more can be stored. In case a cover crop is used the loss of r plant food is slight. An objection is sometimes urged ~ that fall-plowed soil becomes saturat- C ed with water during the winter and I remains wetter and colder later in the C spring that land left unbroken in the ~ fall. This is true only upon land not a sufficiently drained and where theC :breaking is shallow. Water passes through deep breaking readily, andt with reasonable drainage it is ready for planting earlier than lands brok-a en in the spring. j When land *is nearly level and drainage poor, the soil should not be ~ flat-broken, but left in ridges or nar row lands about 5 or 6 feet wide. r suitable for planting, with a dead C furrow between. This provides win ter drainage and keeps the pulverized ' soil out of the water, which is im- a portant even if unbroken. Deepening the Soil. 1. The advice to go down gradually is ' given solely because the inexperienced a farmer may try to plow too deeply 't the first time and bring to the surface ~ too much of the subsoil. The best a plan is to double plow; that is, to follow the breaking plow in the same 0 scooter (with sides removed) and go down as deeply as desired. Generally the disk plow may be sent down 8 or 10 inches with impunity if the plow ing is done in the fall. and especially if the land is plowed twice or more. There is no qestion that breaking and pulverizing to a depth of 8 to 10 or 12 inehes is economical. The cost of breaking 10 inehes deep when done with ai disk plow should not be more than 50 cet an acre in excess of breaking 6 inehes deep. Whether a plant has plenty of food all the time 4 or only part of the time maikes the difference bet.ween a good erop and a poor crop. It is Advisable to Plow Deeper Than 8, 10, or 12 Inches?4 The dept'h of plowing must be de- I termined by the farmer himself. He knows the conditions and is the best .iudge of the cost. Tn many sections. if done in the fall it uindloubtedly pays ti 51ubmil 1~1 or 20 Iir-he. This world. Som 'n f)Ssils in hnm rid eli omnpart by the abundant rainfall that 1 ir does not penetrate them to aid in reparing plant food. Such fields. herefore. may not show any benefits f subsoiling until after two or more ears. It rarely pays to subsoil land in the pring, and it is never advisable to se the suosoil plow when the sub oil is fully saturated with water, ven though the surface be fairly dry. nder such conditions of plowing the lay subsoil is pressed and packed. I -hen the object is to pulverize it and Hlow the air to act upon it. Experience Agrees With Theory. No principle in agriculture has een more thoroughly demonstrated han the value of a deep, thoroughly ulverized seed bed. The Romans plowed on an average inches deep-always three times for crop, and in stiff lands nine times. hey did not call 3 inches "plow ag''; it was only "scarifying.'' The Flemish farmers were the first D follow the better lines of agricul- j are -after the Dark Ages. They de oted their efforts to three main oints: (1) The frequent and deep ulverization of the soil. (2) the ac umulation of manure, and (3) the estruction of weeds. A deeper and more thoroughly pul erized seed bed was the foundation pon which England built an improv d agriculture, and this principle has een generally accepted there for iore than one hundred and sixty ears, until the average production as increased nearly fivefold. A late letter from Hon. Wm. Saund rs. director of the Central Experi iental Farm, Ottawa, Canada, states hat farmers usually plow shallowly nmediately after harvest (August) to preserve moisture and destroy reeks. * * * In October they ommonly plow 8 inches deep. Any lowing done in the spring months is sually shallow, not more than 6 iches deep." Eight inches of break ng in October in Canada, where rosts penetrate 3 or 4 feet deep. is etter for moisture storage than plow ig to a dept'h of 15 inches in the outhern States. The writer has visited a number of outhern agricultural colleges this ear. In every case the directors of heir experiment stations favored a eep and thoroughly prepared seed ed. The Georgia Experiment Station ulletins repeatedly urge a deep, mel w; and rich seed bed for corn, and hey insist that if the soil is not atturally such it should be made so y deep tillage and the addi.tion of fumus. Bulletin No. 63 of the Georgia Ex eriment Station, on "Cotton." .ta.tes that "fourteen years of ex erimentation 'have justified certain onclussions that may 'be accepted as 'ractically final.'' The following is* ne of them: "Thorough bearking nd commingling of the upper soil. radually increasing the depth to 8 r 10 inches. using plow and harrow. ; more effective than deeper but less horough pulverizing.'' On th]e sugar planta-tions of Louisi na the tillage for cane averages 12 to 5 inches in depth. On the Eva plantation, in the Haw iian Islands, the average depth of lowing is 30 inches. This plantation roduces the largest crops of sugar ane to the acre in the world. In :the Farmers' Cooperative De ionstration Work the importance of deep and thoroughly prepared seed ed like a garden has been most wide r demonstrated. Thousands of tests ave been made each year by exact nd .painstaking farmers to an ex ent that leaves no possible room for oubt as to the great value of a deep nd thoroughly prepared seed bed. Concretely stated, a deep, thor ughly pulverized seed bed filled with umus has the following advantages: (1) It provides more food, because Fancy The Book Stor :ome if you are 3Iass, Fancy Chi Bilver. $1088' p tiplies bac:terial life in a larger body of soil. (2) It stores more moisture and it loses its moisture less rapidly on ac count 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 neces sity of terracing. because it holds so much water in suspension that heavy rainfalls will go to the bottom and be held by the drier earth above until they can be absorbed by the subsoil. (6) Humus enables the soil to store more moisture, increases its tempera ture. makes it more porus, furnishes plant food. stimulates chemical ac tion. and fosters bacterial life. Exceptions Due to Conditions of Soil and Subsoil. (1) Never plow below the line of standing water in the soil, because the subsoil can not be pulverized in water. The water level must first be loiver ed by drainage. (2) Do no deep fall plowing on light sandy land on dry, semiarid plains, and this especially applies to elevated sandy table-lands. Such lands can be helped by adding humus and using a. winter cover crop of durum wheat. (3) Do not plow deeply or subsoil in the spring. The subsoil is generally too full of water, and is too late for much effective action of the air upon. the soil and for the winter rains. to firm the subsoil before planting for cotton. (4) Thin grav soils underlaid with yellow or stiff clay near the surface, most of the post-oak flats, and the comparatively level coast lands should" be broken in ridges (back-farrowed) 5. 6. or 7 feet wide, according to the crop to be planted. Cotton and corn 1 may be left thicker in the row to off set the wider space between the rows. The dead furrow between the rows should be double-plowed and made as deep as practicable, with a good ou"tle.t for the water. This method will gradually deepen the soil, in crease drainage, reduce washing. and give a larger and deeper body of loose, aired earth or the roots. This plan is excellent when surface drainage is necessary. Soil to be live and friable must be kept out of standing water winter and summer. The sugar planters of Lounisiana' all use the ridge method (generally 7 feet wide) both for sugar cane and corn. The dead furrow is as deep as a plow drawn by 4 or 6 heavy munles can penetrate at the last breaking. This gives an average dep-th of tillage of 12 or 15 inches. The adoption of the ridge method on demonstration fields in the Yazoo Delta in 1906 increased the yield of corn from 14 bushels per acre to '70 bushels. No fertilizer was used. Winter Management. In case no winter cover crop is us ed the soil should be disked or har rowed two or three times during the winter, provided it is dry enough. Give good drainage to all parts of the field. Any cultivatdion done after the deen fall breaking should be shallow--not more than 3 or 4 inches deep. S. A. Knapp, Special Agent in Charge. Aproved: B. T. Galloway, Chief of Bureau. September 15, 1908. Just Growing. Youth 's Companion. "Why, Mrs. White,'' began the summer visitor 'newly returned to Saymouth, "how those maples of yours have growvn since last year ! It's perfectly amazing!" "Oh, I do' know's it's anything to wonder at,'' said Mrs. White, easily. ''They ain'-t got anything else to do.'' China! e is the place to In need of Cut na and Stealing jok Store. S'.\TE OE 1 W Ti i A4_i LiLN.\. 'c)NTY OF NEWEiu Y. British a1d Are'ican _ L1'rtgagett Company. Limlited. Plaintiffs, a gainst Jno. W. Ropp et al., Defendants. By order of the court herein I will sell to the highest bidder at public auction before the court house at Newberry. S. C.. dityring the legal hours of sale on saleda' -- Novem- 3 ber, 1908. same being th -nd day of said month. the undivided interest of John W. Ropp in all that tract of land situate in No. 7 Township, New-! berry County. State of South Caro lina, of which the late Caroline W. Ropp died seized and possessed, con taining one hundred and thirty and two-thirds (130 2-3) acres, more or less, and bountled by Saluda river, lands of R. G. Williams, F. A. Linu say and others. the interest of the said John W. Ropp being one-fourth of said tract of land. Also, at the same time and place, all that tract of land lying and being situate in the county of Newberry, State of South Carolina. Township No. Seven. containing six hurdred! and eight (608) acres, more or less. I bounded on north by lands of D. M. Spearman. east by lands of Alice R Hipp and Sophia Deloach. south by Saluda river and west by lands of W. J. Holloway. Terms of Sale: One-third of the purchase money to be paid in cash, the balance in one and two years in equal annual instalments, the credit portion to be secured by bond of the purchaser and a mortgage of the premises sold and to bear interest from the date of sale at the rate of eight per cent per annum, interest to be paid annually. with leave to the purchaser to anticipate the credit portion in whole or in part. Pur chaser to pay for papers and record ing same. H. H. Rikard, Master. Master's Office. Oct. 8. 1908. STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA. COUNTY OF NEWBERRY. Court of Common Pleas. Bedell B. Boland. in his own right and as administrator of the personal estate of Carrie E. Boland, deceased. Plaintiff, versus R. Todd Boland, in his own right and as administrator of the personal estate of Carrie E. Boland, deceased, and Josephine Taylor, Defendants. By virtue of an order of the court herein, I will sell to the highest bid der at publie auction. before the court house at Newberry, S. C.,' dur ing the legal hours of sale, on sale day in November. 1.908, the same be ing the 2nd day of said month, all that lot of land lying and being sit uate in the Town of Prosperity, County of Newberry and State of South Carolina. bounded by a public street of the said Town. by lots of Dr. Geo. Y. Hunter, Elvira Kibler. William and Irving Long and per haps others. Terms of sale: One half of the pur chase money to be paid in cash, the balance in one year from day of sale, the credit portion to be secured by bond of the purchaser and a mort gage of the premises sold, and to bear interest from the day of sale at1 the rate of eight per cent per annum, with leave to the purchaser to anti ipate payment in whole or in part. Purchaser to pay for papers and for recording same. H. H. Rikard. Master. Master's Ofmle. Oct. 8. 1908. REGISTRATION NOTICE. Notice is hereby given that the books of registration for the town of Newberry. S. C., will be open on Tues day, September 8th, 1908. and the un dersigned as Supervisor of Registra tion for the said town, will keep said books open every day from nine A. M. until five P. M. (Sunday excepted) including the first day of December, 1908. Eugene S. Werts, Supervisor of Registration. Buying a Piano or an Organ is not hard when you come or write to us. Our Pianos and Organs are guaranteedL and up-to-date, and at a reasonable price.r The cases are beautiful, the inside is made by the best and most experienced men in their line, so it is no wonder our Pianos and Organs hold their sweet tone a lifetime. Write us at once for catalog andl special p~rices and terms, ::tating preference Piano or Organ. f Malone's Music House, Columbia, S. C.j J'TAOS AND ORGANS. Iewberrg lrdwore Jompan, C:3 0 0 U. CD fth IEW BERRY lARD WARE" lOMPANY.