PAGE TWO
HEPPNER GAZETTE TIMES, HEPPNER, OREGON, THURSDAY, FEB. 25, 1937.
Soil Conservation Practices
Told at Association Meeting
The annual meeting of the Lex
ington Wind Blow association, held
at Lexington Friday, brought forth
much information of interest and
value to all interested in farming in
the county. Detailed minutes of the
meeting, attended by 73 farmers and
interested listeners, is given by Le
grand Guild, agronomist with the
local Soil Conservation service, as
follows:
Presiding were Henry Smouse,
president of the association, and
County Agent Belanger, secretary.
Mr. Smouse opened the meeting
and related accomplishments and ac
tivities of the association during the
past year. Accomplishments men
tioned consist of 4000 acres seeded to
crested wheat grass, 4000 acres were
furrowed to check blowing, 70,000
acres were trash fallowed, 2000
acres were left to come back na
tive, 8 miles of roads were strawed,
and 3 miles oiled. Also 26 Morrow
county farmers journeyed to Doug
las county, Washington. While there
they studied special methods used
to cultivate blow soils and obtain
good wheat yields, lhe previous
year only 4 made a similar trip.
The problem of controlling blows
on land belonging to absentee own
ers was discussed. It was brought
out that the law prohibits going on
to a man's land to work without his
consent. One case was cited where
a small blow, possibly less than 200
square feet, started on the land of
an absentee owner and before long
this blow crept over to a neighbor
ing farm where 450 acres of growing
grain were destroyed before it could
be checked. It was estimated that
one half hour with plows to furrow
with or one half ton of straw would
have stopped this at its point of
origin. A bill, granting authority to
Blow associations whereby they can
legally work lands of absentee own
ers, is being prepared for the state
legislature it was learned. (Editor's
note: This bill, H. B. 148, has since
passed both houses and awaits the
governor's signature.)
County Agent Belanger gave an
informal explanation of slide pic
tures and conducted a roundtable
discussion of both wind and water
erosion. The slides, forty in number,
show both types of erosion as they
appear in Morrow county, not some
where in Canada, and how, and what
is being done to prevent these soil
losses in Morrow county. Much en
thusiasm was shown as the farmers
discussed their vital problems and
contributed to the major part of the
discussion.
Controlling blows after they have
started was discussed. The princi
pal method used is that of furrow
ing. This is accomplished by various
implements most of which have been
devised by the ingenuity of the far
mers themselves. Some have used
gang plows with the two outside
bottoms remaining, the center ones
having been removed. This makes
two furrows 8 feet apart. These
furrows are plowed just as deep as
the plow can be set. Another party
has fastened shovels to the goose
necks of his rod weeder and furrows
with that implement. Mr. Smouse
and Mr. Nelson have built a furrow
ing machine of 4 x 4 beams. Duck
foot type shovels are attached at 41
foot intervals, three to a section,
with three sections. This machine
will furrow a strip 36 feet in width.
The three sections are arranged on
. a grain drill hitch. Mr. Smouse
even attached seeders on behind the
shovels and seeded crested wheat
grass in the furrows'. The results of
this seding should be known this
coming spring. Under certain con
ditions just a spring tooth harrow is
used to furrow growing grain. Con
siderable straw is spread each sea
son also.
The keynote of the meeting was
preventive measures rather than
temporary control as mentioned
above. Trashy fallow was discussed
thoroughly. The object of trashy
fallow is to leave on top, as much
trash, litter, plant residues or what
have you it all means the same
thing and clods, as is possible.
These clods and trash serve to catch
and hold moisture as well as reduce
wind action on the soil to a mini
mum. Mr. Hill explained that trash
on the fallow will protect the soil
from the heat of the sun and winds
thus increasing moisture penetration,
and reducing evaporation. As an
example that may be comparable he
cited a demonstration made by the
Forest Service. "The temperature
was 108 degrees. A thermometer
coated with lamp black, correspond
ing to bare exposed ground imme
diately rose to 157 degrees while the
temperature underneath the forest
litter or duff covering the soil was
only 57 degrees."
At this time the question of straw
decomposition when it is left near
the surface and on top was brought
up. This was explained by stressing
the fact that litter left on top catches
moisture. Moisture and air in con
tact with the soil causes rotting and
quicker and more complete decom
position than straw turned under.
Straw turned completely under, as in
the case of deep plowing with mold
boards, is often times shut off from
the air and moisture both.
The question of water runoff and
moisture penetration on stubble
compared with smooth or clean till
ed fallow was discussed. Orville
Cutsforth cited a case where he dug
down in a stubble field and found
moisture down '32 inches whereas on
an adjoining field that was harrowed
prior to seeding and in a smooth
condition the moisture had penetrat
ed to a depth of only 24 inches. An
other time he had the opportunity of
observing snow runoff from two
fields. Each field lay at the head of
a small water shed. These two
drainages met farther down and
emptied into the same gully. One
field had been plowed deep, har
rowed, and seeded. The other was
plowed shallow, with moldboards re
moved, rod-weeded instead of har
rowed, and furrow drilled. He es
timated that he witnessed 50 less
runoff from the latter field. Mr.
Smouse told of an incident he ex
perienced some years back. One fall
he plowed part of his field and part
he didn't. He expected to have much
more penetration on the plowed part.
When he harvested the two he was
much surprised to find the yield
much heavier on the field left in
stubble over the winter. This would
indicate more moisture retention and
penetration. The point here is not
one of the advisability of fall or
spring plowing, but why did one
field show more moisture retention
than contrasting type of cultivation.
This was answered by the group in
this way. Soil, clean tilled and pul
verized tends to seal over when ex
posed to water while rough tilled
soil is protected by the trash and re
mains open to penetration.
Apparently the secret to trash
tillage is shallow plowing. It is im
possible to plow shallow with mold
board plows unless the moldboards
are removed. The problem of side
draft arose- Mr. Smouse said he was
trying to overcome sidedraft by de
veloping a duckfoot type of plow
with a reduced frog. He has inter
ested the Oliver Plow people in his
problem and hopes to have them
make a special type plow. Another
trouble experienced when plowing
shallow, with moldboards removed,
was that of "the frog scouring."
One individual said he had over
come that problem to a large extert
by cutting the moldboard and frog
about half off. Also Mr. Smouse
thinks his duckfoot type of plow
will overcome the scouring prob
lem. Disc plows are the best for
trashy and shallow plowing. The
farmers in this area favor the small
er discs from 20 to 22 inch discs
with 8 to 10 inch spools. The ques
tion arose of how deep should shal
low plowing be. The amount of
stubble and the prevalence of weeds
will affect the depth. The- answer,
based on the results of the outstand
ing crop of Douglas county, is that
plowing should be just as shallow
as will control weeds and volunteer.
Other advantages of shallow plow
ing referred to throughout the dis
cussion was that of less draft com
pared to deep plowing thus reduc
ing cost of tillage. Also it was ex
pressed by some that shallow plow
ing will not develop a plow sole and
will even in time cure plow sole
in old fields by increasing water,
and root penetration. Mr. Hill stat
ed that the best results of trashy
shallow plowing are not obtained
until after the third year .
(Continued Next Week)
F.F.A. Have Joint
Meet With Pendleton
The local chapter of the, Future
Farmers of America held a joint
meeting with the Pendleton chapter
last Friday in the high school assem
bly room. President Strong of Pen
dleton took over the meeting and
made a brief talk in which he sum
marized the work that the Pendleton
chapter had done the past year. He
emphasized the points that contrib
uted to the success of the chapter,
and also told what accounted for
some of the things they failed to do.
The meeting was then turned over
to President Munkers, who explain
ed the Heppner program of work
and activities of this chapter. It
seems that the Heppner organization
has progressed very much in the
short period of time that it has been
active.
The local FF.A. basketball team
lost a hard fought game to the Pen
dleton F. F. A. hoopsters that eve
ning, with a final score of 19-27. The
lineup was as follows: Heppner:
Taylor f, 8; Williams g; Kenny c,
5; Cason g; Barratt f, 6; Johnston.
Pendleton: Snyder f, 6; Warmstrom
g, 9; Smith c, 2; Young f, 8; Har
vey g, 2.
A. K. McMurdo was in town Tues
day from Rhea creek. He reported
having lambed a band of 200 ewes
during the severest weather with a
net increase of 112 per cent.
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Always at Your Service
I
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BUY YOUR APPLIANCES NOW, BEFORE PRICES ADVANCE!
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Electric Water Heater. With an automatic electric
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For electric washers, ironers and water heaters
SEE ANY DEALER IN ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT
or PACIFIC POWER & LIGHT COMPANY
Always at Your Servtce
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It's just plain drudgery when you use old-fashioned methods
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