. Farm crops; a practical treatise on the growing of American field crops: containing brief and popular advice on the seeding, cultivating, handling and marketing of farm crops, and on the management of lands for the largest returns. always get by early plowingand by repeated workings, using the disk, the peg-tooth harrow and the roller. Not least among these things is early the furrow-slice itself acts as a mulch and holdsin the soil much water that would otherwise , too, where weeds grow, water is used up;and when the winds blow over unprotected soil,water is licked up
. Farm crops; a practical treatise on the growing of American field crops: containing brief and popular advice on the seeding, cultivating, handling and marketing of farm crops, and on the management of lands for the largest returns. always get by early plowingand by repeated workings, using the disk, the peg-tooth harrow and the roller. Not least among these things is early the furrow-slice itself acts as a mulch and holdsin the soil much water that would otherwise , too, where weeds grow, water is used up;and when the winds blow over unprotected soil,water is licked up and carried away from soil andseed. Early plowing gives weeds and grass and otherdebris time enough to rot and decay and to becomethoroughly incorporated into the soil. By the time GETTING THE SEED BED RIGHT 31 the top soil and the under soil have been knittedtogether again capillarity is at work sending waterinto the seed bed—just where newly planted seedcan get the advantage of it. Then, too, early plowing and repeated workingsof the soil mean mellowness and fineness and com-pactness. All of these do much to make the seedbed right and perfect. You want no loose, open topsoil unless there is an abundance of rain to start. PEG-TOOTH HARROW This common farm tool is not only useful in preparingthe seed bed, but it has a place in weed destruction. Aftercrops like corn, or cotton, or wheat are planted, the fine peg-tooth harrow can be run over the ground, not only for its ef-fect in mellowing the soil and conserving the moisture, but mdestroying the grass and weed seed at the surface of theground. the crop. Nor do you want a cloddy soil, nor oneof poor, mechanical form, nor one in bad physicalcondition. Such will not be conducive to a goodstand or to vigor or healthy growth. A poorlycompacted, lately plowed, clod-filled soil does notmake a good seed bed and handles the water withlittle or no satisfaction. Even though the season be wet, repeated diskingsor harrowings are good, be
Size: 2399px × 1041px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectagriculture, bookyear
