Word: moldboards
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1943-1943
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...rotary tiller which, avoiding the ruinous, soil-destroying effects of the moldboard plow (TIME, July 26), chops, harrows and disks the ground...
...result, Faulkner points out, is to render the bare soil a ready prey to drought or erosion by rain. Appalled at the damage done by the moldboard plow during its 200-year history, Faulkner observes that with all their machinery U.S. farmers get less yield per acre than Chinese peasants...
Bearded Soil. Farmer Faulkner is sure, on the basis of these results, that abandonment of the moldboard plow would result in immensely richer crops-without artificial fertilizer, lime, insecticides or even cultivating. His method, says he, would ultimately conquer insects (because bugs would find the crops less tasty) and weeds (because they would be killed off as they came up; weed seeds would not be buried and stored for future trouble, as they are by the plow). To the anticipated objection by most farmers that Faulkner's "bearded" soil would be harder to handle than clean plowed land, Faulkner...
Last week the top U.S. soil expert, Soil Conservation Director Hugh Hammond Bennett, saluted Faulkner. Bennett pointed out that some pioneering farmers (notably United Fruit Co. and some Cuban sugar-cane growers) have long used a system of cultivation like Faulkner's, called "stubble mulch." The moldboard plow, agreed Bennett, is doomed, except for some special crops and uses...