PLOUGH IMPORTANT

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31363, 8 May 1967, Page 1

PLOUGH IMPORTANT

In spite of proposals from time to time for replacement of the plough as a tillage implement, he was certain that it would retain its importance, the president of the World Ploughing Organisation, Mr W. Feuerlein, of West Germany, said at Lincoln College.

A research worker in soil cultivation, Mr Feuerlein said

that each of the alternatives suggested had some valuable contribution to make to soil cultivation, but always covered only part of it. One of the reasons why the plough could not be replaced was that it was the only Implement that deposited organic material in the deeper layers of the soil—other implements just mixed it in. It could be proved that, according to climate and soil, for transformation of organic material, into humus, it had to be at a certain depth. This involved the various

bacteria that worked on the organic material and the objective was that this should not be just burned up, oxidised or mineralised, but should be transformed in part at least into humus. It was this that was the plough’s main task.

There were also certain technical effects that only the plough could perform on the soil. Nevertheless the World Ploughing Organisation had to adapt ploughing styles to different local conditions. It had a tillage research committee that dealt with adapting tillage to differing climates and economic conditions.