A Comparison of the Effects of Subsurface Tillage and Plowing on Some Physical Properties of a Field Soil

One of the most important problems of soil management is the formation and conservation of good soil tilth. A soil may be considered to be in good tilth when the draft required for pulling a plow or other tillage implement is low; thus, the soil is easily worked down into a good seed bed. The purpose of this study was to measure by the determination of some physical properties, how soil tilth is influenced by subsurface tillage compared to plowing, under field conditions. From the studies made, no differences in soil tilth were found between subsurface tillage and plowing as measured by volume weight, specific gravity, total porosity and compaction. A highly significant difference was found in the effect of sub-tilling as compared with plowing on increasing the stability of soil aggregates to water drops in the zero to one inch layer and a significant difference at the 5% lever in the one to three inch layer. Advisor: F. L. Dule