Rensselaer Union, Volume 3, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 September 1870 — Fall Plowing. [ARTICLE]

Fall Plowing.

The advantages of fall plowing are set forth by George F. Holbrook, of Vermont, as follows: Without elaborating the many strong points in favor of fall plowing, a few of the more prominent benefits may be briefly stated as follows: 1. August and September is a good time to turn over bound out sod land and manure and reseed it once to grass, obtaining a crop of hay the following year. 2. October and November is an excellent time to break up sod land for planting the following spring. 3. The weather is then cool and bracing and the team strong and hearty for the work, while the weather in the spring is more relaxing and the team less able; and spring work being always hurrying, it saves time to dispatch as much of the plowing as possible during the previous autumn. 4. Bod land broken up early in autumn will be quite free from growing grass the following spring; the roots of the late overturned sward being so generally killed by the immediately succeeding winter that not much grass will readily start in spring. 5. The frosts of winter disintegrate the plowed laud, so that it readily crumbles in fine particles in spring, and a deep, mellow seed-bed is easily made. The chemical changes and modifications resulting from atmospheric action during the winter develop latent fertility in the upturned furrows, which, together with the mellowing influences, materially increase the crop. 6. Most kinds of insects are either wholly destroyed, or their depredations materially checked, by late fall plowing especially the common white grub and the cutworm. 7. Corn stubble-land may be plowed late in the fall, and thus be all ready for very early sowing in spring, thereby going far to insure a good catch of grass; the roots of the new seeding getting hold well, or being well established, before the droughts of summer come on. Where the subsoil is fine grained, and unctious and close, or where there is a hard pan of good quality, deep plowing may be at once resorted to with decided advantage. Where the»subsoil is poorer the plowing may still be advantageously deepened by degrees, say an inch at each new breaking up. But in by far a majority of cases deep plowing may be prac ticed at once—indeed it maybe the rule with safety, while shallow plowing may be the exception. Plow say nine, ten, eleven or twelve inches in November. The subsoil turned up will grow several shades darker by spring. The frosts and atmospheric influences of winter will mellow the soil. The inorganic elements and all latent fertility will be made more active for benefiting the crop. In spring spread the manure and plow it in or otherwise work it in or mingle it with the soil to the depth, say of four inches, or a little more or less, and you have the very best attainable conditions foi realizing good crops. Deeper plowing may thus be practiced than would at all times be safe or expedient, if the plowing is delayed till spring.