Plow Row

The hottest farming argument since the tractor first challenged the horse was started last summer by Farmer Edward Faulkner's attack on the moldboard plow --Plowman's Folly (TIME, July 26). Last week returns on the great debate had begun to come in. They were very favorable to Faulkner.

A careful study of plowing v. other cultivation methods was made on Iowa experimental farms by U.S. and State soil experts. The new methods were disc harrowing (advocated by Faulkner), "lister-ing" and "subsoiling"--all of which loosen the soil without turning it over. The object is to leave on the surface a stubble "beard," both to check erosion and provide decaying organic matter as fertilizer. In the Iowa test these methods: > Produced bigger soybean crops than plowing, slightly smaller corn crops./- > Saved one-third to half of the man and machine power required by plowing. > Reduced soil erosion from 34 tons per acre to ten. > Seemed to keep down weeds better.

The investigators decided that plowing is an expensive luxury. They suggested that, before it is abandoned, more study should be made of the new methods' effectiveness against weeds (they had watched only one field for weeds) and corn borers. But they concluded that farmers and machinery manufacturers should investigate new types of machines before investing heavily in moldboard plows, "which may be obsolete long before they are worn out."

/- In a similar South Dakota test, results were about the same: plowing yielded more corn, less wheat.

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