Secondly, the early stirring of the soil prevents
evaporation of the moisture in the soil during late summer and the
fall. Thirdly, in the parts of the dry-farm territory where much
precipitation occurs in the fall, winter, or early spring, fall
plowing permits much of this precipitation to enter the soil and be
stored there until needed by plants.
A number of experiment stations have compared plowing done in the
early fall with plowing done late in the fall or in the spring, and
with almost no exception it has been found that early fall plowing
is water-conserving and in other ways advantageous. It was observed
on a Utah dry-farm that the fall-plowed land contained, to a depth
of 10 feet, 7.47 acre-inches more water than the adjoining
spring-plowed land--a saving of nearly one half of a year's
precipitation. The ground should be plowed in the early fall as soon
as possible after the crop is harvested. It should then be left in
the rough throughout the winter, so that it may be mellowed and
broken down by the elements. The rough lend further has a tendency
to catch and hold the snow that may be blown by the wind, thus
insuring a more even distribution of the water from the melting
snow.
Pages:
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126