When the rains come the water is held in these grooves and it finds its way down the whole depth of the furrow slice carrying air with it and moistening every particle of trash clear to the bottom of the furrow. Such conditions are ideal for the work of the different forms of bacteria to break down plant fibre contained in the roots and trash and work it into humus, which is in turn manipulated by other forms of soil bacteria to produce soil water which is the only food of growing plants.
Jointer Plows.—American plow makers also have recognized the necessity of mixing humus with soil in the act of plowing. To facilitate the process and at the same time turn a wide furrow, the jointer does fairly good work when soil conditions are suitable. The jointer is a little plow which takes the place of the coulter and is attached to the plow-beam in the same manner. The jointer turns a little furrow one inch or two inches deep and the large plow following after turns a twelve-inch or fourteen-inch furrow slice flat over, throwing the little jointer furrow in the middle of the furrow bottom in such a way that the big furrow breaks over the smaller furrow.
If the work is well done, cracks as wide as a man’s hand and from three to five inches deep are left all over the field. These cracks lead air and moisture to rot the trash below. This is a much quicker way of doing a fairly good job of plowing. Such plows loosen the soil and furnish the conditions required by nature; and they may be operated with much less skill than the old-fashioned narrow-furrowed Scotch plows.
Good plowing requires first that the soil be in proper condition to plow, neither too dry nor too wet, but no man can do good plowing without the proper kind of plow to fit the soil he is working with.
PLOWING BY TRACTOR
Under present conditions farm tractors are not intended to replace horse power entirely but to precede horses to smooth the rough places that horses may follow with the lighter machines to add the finishing touches. Light tractors are being made, and they are growing in popularity, but the real business of the farm tractor is to do the heavy lugging—the work that kills horses and delays seeding until the growing season has passed. The actual power best suited to the individual farm can only be determined by the nature of the land and the kind of farming.
In the Middle West where diversified farming is practiced, the 8-16 and the 10-20 sizes seem to be the most satisfactory, and this is without regard to the size of the farm. The preponderance of heavy work will naturally dictate the buying of a tractor heavier than a 10-20. The amount of stationary work is a factor. In certain communities heavy farm tractors are made to earn dividends by running threshing machines after harvest, silo fillers in the fall and limestone crushers in the winter.
Here is a classified list of jobs the medium size farm tractor is good for:
Clearing the Land—pulling up bushes by the roots, tearing out hedges, pulling stumps, grubbing, pulling stones.
Preparing Seed Bed and Seeding—plowing, disking, crushing clods, pulling a land plane, rolling, packing, drilling, harrowing.