Down With the Plow

One of the most revolutionary ideas in agricultural history last week had the general approval of U.S. Department of Agriculture officials. The idea: that the plow is a great enemy of man.

Chief exponent of this theory is an Ohio experimental farmer named Edward H. Faulkner. He believes that plowing is responsible for erosion and most other ills of the U.S. soil. He tested his theory by using a cultivation method of his own: instead of plowing he disk-harrowed the soil and planted his crops in the chopped-up surface stubble, weeds and debris. His harvest was astonishing. Many a farmer who reads his newly published report (Plowman's Folly; University of Oklahoma Press; $2) may be tempted never to plow, again.

A Kentucky farmer's son, longtime county agent and agricultural teacher, Faulkner for 25 years has badgered farmers to tell him why they plow, claims that he never got an answer that made scientific sense. Most farmers plow, he concludes, mainly because they like to. Why is it, Faulkner asks, that when crops in a plowed field become parched and yellow, the weeds in unplowed adjoining fencerows still grow lush and green? Why do plants in meadows and forests grow prodigiously without cultivation? Because, answers Faulkner, they are fed TIME, July 26, 1943 and protected by decaying plants on the surface of the soil. Plowing buries this organic material beyond the reach of most roots. Besides depriving the new crop of food, the buried vegetation forms a blotter that soaks up moisture from above and below, draws it away from the surface, where it is needed.

The 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.

Fruitful Trash. Faulkner rented a farm and conducted a serious test. He grew a thick cover crop of rye, harrowed it in, planted in a surface that looked more like a trash pile than soil. He used no commercial fertilizer, no insecticides. He shocked neighboring farmers by his unorthodox method of planting tomatoes: he simply laid each plant on top of the packed soil and threw a little dirt on its roots. Within 24 hours every plant stood up straight. The source of this idea was an old textbook picture of a seedbed. Faulkner noticed that while the seedbed was dry, a heelprint in it looked moist; from this he developed his theory that the soil's capillarity (its ability to draw moisture from below) is improved if it is packed rather than loose.

Faulkner's neighbors were still more amazed when they saw the fruit of these monkeyshines. Faulkner's tomatoes, heavier than average, brought premium prices; he grew sweet potatoes in two months instead of the normal four; he harvested five pickings of beans instead of the usual one or two.

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 replies: let machinery makers develop new devices to do the job.

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.

In its stead, the Department of Agriculture urges farmers to practice "subsurface tillage"--a method using new machinery that cuts off weeds below the surface, leaves the soil with a fertile beard.

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