There is difference of opinion everywhere as to whether the first plowing should be toward or away from the trees.  In places where the soil is pretty heavy and the rainfall is apt to be quite large, plowing toward the trees and opening a dead furrow near the center seems to promote rapid distribution of surplus water.  If the rainfall is less and arrangements for deep penetration are more necessary, the plowing can well be away from the trees, so as to direct the water toward the row.  It is, of course, exceedingly important in this case, that the land should be worked back before it has a chance to dry out by exposure and this is one of the chief objections to the practice, because one is apt to let the land lie away from the trees, hoping for a late rain which may not come.  Whatever theoretical advantages there may be in either of these methods, they can only be secured by the greatest care to avoid the dangers which attend them.  This uncertainty is the reason why people so generally disagree as to which is the best practice, and they are right in disagreeing.

Dry Plowing and Sowing.

I dry-plowed my grain field to a depth averaging seven inches; it turned up very rough.  I then disked and harrowed it, but it is still very rough.  I intended to drill the seed, wait for sufficient rain, and harrow to a satisfactory condition, but have been advised to put no implement on after the drill, as a harrow would spoil the work done by the drill, and a slab or roller would cause the ground to bake.  If I wait for rain to work the soil before drilling, it will bring the seeding too late.

You have probably done a pretty good job of dry work.  If the land is still too rough for the drill, we should broadcast and harrow again.  It is not desirable to harrow after the drill, and to roll or rub is likely to smooth too much, because the land would bake or crust after the heavy rains.  This would cause loss of moisture and it is therefore better to leave the surface a little rough.  You can roll lightly after the grain is up, if the surface seems to need closing a little.

Artesian Water.

I have a large tract of adobe soil, a black clay top soil.  For about five months in the year there is not sufficient water on the place.  I have sunk wells in different parts, but with very poor results, the further we went down the drier and harder the soil got.  What little water we did obtain was unfit for domestic use.  Can you give me an idea as to what might be the result of an artesian well in such soil?

Artesian water has nothing to do with the soils.  It is a deeper proposition than that.  Artesian water comes from gravel strata overlaid with impervious layers of rock or clay in such a way that water in the gravel is under pressure because the gravel leads up and away to some point where water is poured into it by rain falling or snow melting on mountain or high plateau.  As the water cannot get out of this