DEEP PLOUGHING.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 51, 24 October 1912, Page 2

DEEP PLOUGHING.

O EMPLOYMENT OF DYNAMITE. Leading agricultural authorities everywhere are advocating deep tillage both as a means to increasing crops and as protection against such disastrous dry spells as characterised the summer of 1911. There seems to he no difference of opinion as to the advantages of deep tillage, but there is in regard to the method of doing the work. What might be called the natural method is the planting of crops such as lucerne, whose large and powerful tap roots will penetrate a rather compact subsoil to a depth 'of six feet or more, and in a few years render it more or less open and give it a sufficient content of humus to materially increase its fertility and water-holding capacity. A more rapid method of deep tillage is with the subsoil plough which breaks up the soil to a depth of fifteen to twenty inches. This, however, is rather expensive, and very hard on men and horses. ■ Within recent years a third method of subsoiling has been the subject of extensive experiment, namely, with dynamite. The results of these experiments, when they were conducted under proper conditions, have been quite remarkable. Cotton yields have becii doubled, tripled and quadrupled by subsoiling with dynamite. Corn has responded splendidly to this treatment. Cereals, hay ,fruit trees, tomatoes, beans, watermelons, and various other crops have all shown substantially increased • yields when the subsoiling has been done in dry weather, preceding the rainy season. Astonishing Results.

The publicity , given to these astonishing results, which point to a revolution in farming methods, has naturally created much inquiry in the minds of farmers as to the cost of subsoiling and the length of time before subsoiled land will have to be again subsoiled in order to keep it open. This question is obviously difficult to answer as, with the exception of a few pioneer users of dynamite, most of the remarkable results noted have occurred within the last 3 ear or two. Fortunately, however, there were enough of the pioneer users to prove that the effect of subsoiling lasts for many years. The cost averages about £3 an acre, including dynamite, caps, fuse, and the labour of making the holes and doing the blasting. In most cases the cost is covered within the year, out of the increased yield, but in other cases where the increased yield would not be worth more than £3 per acre, it is important to know how long this increased production is going to keep up so as to justify the expense. Reasons For Deep Tillage. Let us first consider the matter from a theoretical point of view. The reason why deep tillage or subsoil ploughing is desirable is that all the soil below the bottom of the ordinary plough cut, in other words, everything below six or eight inches, is still in its primeval condition. It has never been disturbed. Chemical analysis of soils down to a depth of 20 feet show that on the average acre there are tons of plant foods which become available onl.v when roots can penetrate to them, or when ascending moisture brings them to the roots that cannot get down. Lucerne and other deep-root-ed plants are called “soil makers” because they penetrate this compact soil, introduce humus, and provide a passageway for the descent and ascent of water which carries with it the soluble, fertilising elements, but many subsoils are so hard that it is practically impossible for any one plant to penetrate them. Even when this is impossible there is no use in putting such a> burden on the plant, because whatever vitality is expended in making its own home beneath the surface is subtracted from the vitality of the plant above the surface. In other words, the plant that has to fight for its life beneath the soil has little energy left for fruition. If we make root growth easy and quick by breaking up the subsoil, then

we make the fertilising elements of the subsoil immediately available and save the energy of the plant for fruition. Wo also create in the subsoil a porous condition favourable to the storage of water to a depth that will not keep the soil cold, and yet near enough to the roots to feed them through capillary action. * Subsoiling also introduces air into the soil, and it is just as necessary for the roots of a plant to have air as it for a human being to have air. Loose Subsoil Maintained. No, it is obvious that the passage of air and moisture through the soil, the growth of roots, and the resulting deposit of humus, all tends to keep the soil open; hence, if it is at once thoroughly shattered with dynamite to a depth of five or six feet, and the principles of crop rotation are followed thereafter, it is safe to say that that subsoil will never again get back into its primal compact condition. Whether or not it remains as open as immediately after blasting depends on the continuity of cropping and the proper rotation of the crops. The effect of subsoiling virtually is to change a farm from a 6-inch layer of top-soil to a six-foot layer. The only only element of fertility lacking in the lower five and a half feet is humus, and that will be found in the subsoil in ample quantity after the first year’s cultivation. The significance of this conclusion must be appreciated by any careful agriculturist, because it means a tremendous increase in available fertility and a practical means of insurance against droughts. It does not consti-

tute a substitute for ordinary ploughing. Cultivation of the top soil is always necessary whether the subsoil is broken or not, in order to prevent the growth of weeds, loss of moisture from evaporation, and the formation of a waterproof crust. Practical Results. So much for theory. Now let us turn to the practical results for a demonstration of the theory, as given by the “National Irrigation Journal.” One of the first uses of djnamite for subsoiling was in tree planting. Twen-ty-one years ago W. R. Gunnis planted an orchard with dynamite at La Mesa, Cal. This orchard matured more rapidly than orchards set out with a spade, resisting drought and other unfavourable conditions with marked success, and although the tract has been subdivided and used as a residence property, some of the trees are still thriving, and for years this orchard was recognised as the most productive and best appearing in the neighbourhood. W. W. Stevens, orchardist, Mayfield, Ga., planted trees with dynamite fifteen or twenty years ago. He says: “They are the finest trees I have ever seen, grow for their age. In the planting; of peach ;trees I gained two years in (six; in bfher words, I got as much fain it from’ o'tree planted with dynamitd-at four_Vdafii’; old as we usually get at six years old. I not only plant them with it, but where a tree is failing and seems to be on the decline I 'Starh itsoff’'gi-6whig 'again by : firing charges from three to ten feet apart. ' Nothing seems to tickle the earth so much'as planting watermelons after explosion of three to four feet underground.”

Mr James Craig, president of the Rose Cliff Fruit Farm, 5 Waynesboro, Va., began planting trees with dynamite nine years ago. He writes under date November 15th, 1911: “I should think from the thoroughness of the work done by dynamite that it will last fifteen *or twenty years without question.” Mr Craig plants all his trees with dynamite. Perfect System of Subsoiling. Mr Arthur E. Cole, proprietor of High Point Farm, a small fruit nursery at Chamblee, Ga., writes as follows under date of November 17th, 1911: “About eight years ago the New Roswell Road was graded. In the cut through the steep hill just south of Nancy Creek, between the eight and nine mile-post (from Atlanta), much blasting was done. A vigorous growth of clover and joung sycamore trees immediately sprang up on the roadside where this blasting was done. The clover seed found its own way from the hay where the mules were fed, into the porous soil where the dynamite was used.

“A good stand lias appeared each succeeding year without any cultivation. Noticing this, I began to observe rock quarries and other places where explosives had been used, and found similar conditions prevailing. Wheroever the ground has been broken with dynamite a perfect system of suhsoiling results. Cut a cake of butter with a sharp knife: the cut surface is left hard and smooth. Just so in sub so filing with a plough. It rains, the water soaks through the top soil and then follows the course of the plough, soaking no further. But in subsoiling with dynamite exactly the opposite condition prevails. “The ground is ‘heaved,’ shaken and broken many feet deep, and is left so open and porous that all the rainfall is absorbed and retained. ’This is given back as growing crops demand. Subsoiling with 25 per cent low freezing dynamite has now become a common practice with farmers and orchardists. This process lias the double advantage of irrigating and draining both at one time. Each place where a cartridge is discharged becomes an underground reservoir, and if thus broken in squares of ten to fourteen feet, with one-third to one-half stick of 25 per cent dynamite, the ground will be sufficiently broken for drainage from hole to hole as a result. Lasting Effects. “Perhaps the most valuable features of subsoiling with dynamite is the lasting effects. Modern machinery can plough our ground very fast, but the work is not permanent, while in dynamited land the good, effects are underneath and not affected by sun

or wind ami the porous condition remains for years. Of course the length of time varies with different soils and different crops and different modes of 'cultivation—limestone soil remaining open longest. “Once the land is well subsoiled with dynamite and leguminous crops, peas, alfalfa, clover, or rye are sown, thus feeding nitrogen deep into the soil from the air through the roots, a porous subsoil may ho expected for from throe to four years from one dynamiting. Of course it is not necessary to keep these particular crops growing continuously, hut a good idea is to rotate, using one of them every second or third year. Last spring I dynamited some tree holes on my place, spaced about 2 feet.

“About mid-summer, when everyj thing was dry and crisp from severe drought, I decided to plant vegetables in the same rows with the young treds, between these dynamited hole's. It mas a test case and no cultivation was given, except one hoeing. The results mere wonderful. I not only had the vegetables-, but they continued to -bear till frost. It is evident that in the clay belt of middle Georgia, progressive fanners will all of them soon resort to subsoiling with dynamite. “It is faster, more simple, less expensive, and far less dangerous than often supposed to he. The public is invited to come at any time and see my apple trees, one year old, that have put on new growth of from 5 feet to 7 feet in one year. They were planted last spring (consider the dry year), in holes blasted with half a stick of dynamite.” Cultivate Less—Crow More Per Acre, J. H. Baird, superintendent of the famous Halo Georgia Orchard Com- 1 pany, lort Valley, Ga., operating the largest peach orchard in the world, writes under {(ate of November IGth 1911:

‘Wo have been subsoiling with dynamite for tree-planting for three years. The results have been very satisfactory indeed. Just how long the benefit of breaking this hard pan will last is a. problem. Our first dynamiting throe years ago shows up splendidly on our trees, and up to this time they are muck in advance of those not dynamited, I should think at least one year. I believe the results in subsod ing in this manner will last eight or ten years, and it is my intention now to use dynamite in pur old orchards at their very first appearance of ‘going hack.’ lam sorry that I cannot give you more information on this lino, but my experience of dynamite as stated above is only three years old. All agriculturists know that in order to get greater yields the land has to l)e broken deeply, and the new way of doing this is to cultivate less land and grow more per acre.” 1 Farmsrs Have Fear of Dynamite. But one obstacle scorns to remain to the general adoption of dynamite for suhsciling, and that is the fear that some farmers entertain about using dynamite (says tire “Irrigation Journal” of the United States). Dynamite lias obviously the power to injure—so has gasoline, or a shot-gun, or a high spirited horse, but all three utilities are handled regularly by thousands of people without 'injury, and the same is true of dynamite. There are thousands of farmers throughout the country using dynamite without injury. We occasionally bear of a fanner being hurt or in rare instances killed by tlie use of dynamite. But the records show that out of ap-, proximatcly 500,000 regular users of dynamite throughout the country, including minors, quarry-men, contractors and farmers, there was a casualty list in 1910 in (America of less than ) of 1 per cent. This low accident record is duo to the careful following of instructions put out by all manufacturers of dynamite. It is simply necessary to remember that dynamite is a powerful explosive and handle it accordingly, but there is no reason why any man of commonsense cannot use dynamite for a lifetime without injury. Dynamite is so difficult to explode that in practice it is necessary to discharge it by the explosion of a fulminate cap. Because of its insonsitiveness to shock dynamite will not explode, if dropped on the ground, as many people erroneously

believe. The ordinary dynamite cartridge is Sin long and l.fin in diameter, and consists of a paper shell enclosing the dynamite, which looks like brown sugar.