The points against dry-plowing to which you allude may arise from two claims or beliefs:  first, that turning up land to the sun has a tendency to “burn out the humus”; second, that dry-plowing may leave the land so rough and cloddy that a small rainfall is currently lost by evaporation and leaves less moisture available for a crop than if it is plowed in the usual way after the rains.  The first claim is probably largely fanciful, so far as an upturning in the reduced sunshine of the autumn goes.  Whatever there may be in it would occur in vastly increased degree in a properly worked summer-fallow, and even that is negligible, because of the greater advantage which the summer-fallow yields.  There may be cases in which one will get less growth on dry-plowing than on winter plowing, if the land is rough and the rain scant, and yet dry-plowing before the rains is a foundation for moisture reception and retention — if the land is not only plowed, but is also harrowed or otherwise worked down out of its large cloddy condition.  When that is done, dry-plowing may be a great help toward early sowing and large growth afterward.  As for weeds, dry-plowing may help their starting, but that is an advantage and not otherwise, because they can be destroyed by cultivation before sowing.  If the land is full of weed seed, the best thing to do is to start it and kill it.  The trouble with dry-plowing probably arises, not from the plowing, but from lack of work enough between the plowing and the sowing.  Stubble should often be burned:  it depends upon the soil and the rainfall.  On a heavy soil with a good rainfall, plowing-in stubble is an addition to the humus of the soil, because conditions favor its reduction to that form, and there is moisture enough to accomplish that and promote also a satisfactory growth of the new crop.

Treatment of Dry-Plowed Land.

We are plowing a piece of light sandy mesa land, dry, which has considerable tarweed and other weeds growing before plowing.  Which would be best, to leave the land as it is until the rains come and then harrow, or harrow now?  Would the land left without harrowing gather any elements from the air before rain comes!  The above land is for oat hay and beans next season.

Roll down the ’tar-weed, if it is tall and likely to be troublesome, and plow in at once so that decay may begin as soon as the land gets moisture from the rain.  It would be well to allow the land to lie in that shape, and disc in the seed without disturbing the weeds which have been plowed under.  If all this is done early, with plenty of rain coming there is likely to be water enough to settle the soil, decay the weeds, and grow the hay crop.  Of course, such practice could not be commenced much later in the season.  The land gains practically nothing from the atmosphere by lying in its present condition.  If there is any appreciable gain, it would be larger after breaking up as proposed.  In dry farming, harrowing or disking should be done immediately after plowing, not to produce a fine surface as for a seed bed, but to settle the soil enough to prevent too free movement of dry air.  If your rainfall is ample, the land may be left looser for water-settling.