The problem with concrete around the pole in clay is the freeze heave and dry cycles. In the winter, freezing and thawing action causes heave and expansion that wants to move it around which is why you get the post below the freeze level. During the summer, unless you are in the rain belt, the clay dries up and pulls away (retracts) from the post and concrete around it. That is when cracks in ground appear and some get so wide you can stick your hand in it. Then the wind loading action against the barn makes the posts move ever so slightly enough to begin wallowing out the post hole and you lose the support. Packing the hole with sand or small limestone allows the fines to move with the clay as it expands and retracts. Not allowing the ground to dry out helps in that regard and probably some parts of the country doesn't see what dry clay does just like some parts of the country doesn't deal with the freeze level.
You will also notice that clay in the early spring after it has gone through the freeze cycle is much softer and less compacted due to the process which makes it easier to dig and auger. The summer drying process just compacts the clay to make it very difficult to dig and auger.
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Today's Featured Article - An Old-Time Tractor Demonstration - by Kim Pratt. Sam was born in rural Kansas in 1926. His dad was a hard-working farmer and the children worked hard everyday to help ends meet. In the rural area he grew up in, the highlight of the week was Saturday when many people took a break from their work to go to town. It was on one such Saturday in the early 1940's when Sam was 16 years old that he ended up in Dennison, Kansas to watch a demonstration of a new tractor being put on by a local dealer. It was an Allis-Chalmers tractor dealership,
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