Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-11-23
CROPS GROWN WITHOUT WATER
Result Of Agricultural Department Eek.
periments In the American Desert.

periments In the American Desert.
ALL THAT WAS DONE WAS TO aoLp TIE oRorSp
DOWN WITH MATTED STRAW AND TO PLow
DEKP-sUccEssFuL CULTIVATION N AN ALMOST
RArNLEss DISTRICT WITHOUT IRRIGATION.
The most important piece Of news that has
reached the Agricultural department at Wash
ington for long time past is conveyed by re-
port just received from southwestern Kansas
announcing that the problem Of making the
great American desert productive without
water has been definitely solved at last. When
this is said it is meant to imply that the arid
belt OF the west, extending from the Tooth
meridian to the base of the Rocky mountains.
can be made to bear profitable crops without
the aid Of irrigation, through processes of the
simplest sort, devised and carried into effect by
government botanists during the last few
months. When il is considered that the most
enthusiastic advocates of irrigation in the dry
region admit the impossibility Of moistening.
by artificial means or otherwise. by far the
greater part Of the desert aforesaid, the fabu-
lous value of this discovery-if thus il may be
called-can be fecbly guessed at To make a
barren waste produce food plants probably
without supplying water-such was the problem
with which the botanical division Of the Agri-
cultural department found itself, while ago,
confronted
THE GARDEN CITY EXPERIMENT STATION.
Accordingly an experiment station was
started by the division last autumn in south
west Kansas not far from Garden City. This
particular location was chosen because its con-
ditions were typical of the arid region gen.
orally. Two hundred and forty acres were
bought-S0 acres in one spot and l60 in
another. The land was mostly open prairie,
the surface a stiff clay loan. the top Of which
was baked by the sun into firm crust almos,
as lmpervious TO rain as SO much slate. About
70 inches of rain fell, in was learned, in q
twelvemonth-pretty nearly the average
throughout the desert belt. and. of course, il
ran on without entering the soil. The super.
lntendent OF the station and his men set To
work to see what could be done with the
So-acre patch. To eight acres OF the space
however, they mainly confined their prelimi.
nary experiments; the rest, for the most part
they planted with forage for the mules and
cattle, employing irrigation to help things
along; but the eight acres we're not irrigated
nor supplied with water in any manner arti.
hclally. The eight acres, as originally found
were covered with burr-grass and a prickly
perennial weed with a long botanical name
that is regarded out west as a worse curse thar
the Canada thistle, being even more Difficult,
to eradicate. All this was cleared of in the
early part Of last fall, the soil was plowed sno
narrowed until thoroughly pulverized a foo,
deep, and last spring il was planted with
grasses and forage plants. 1t was found thai
the winters frosts tended to disintegrate the
baked surface crust and render il readily
arabic. Only eight acres were treated in THU
way, because there were only seeds enough OF
the sorts desired to plant that amount O.
space.
INDIGENOUS PLANTS.
The notion Of the Agricultural department
has been that the food plants best adapted fol
agricultural use in the dry belt had been al
ready placed there by all-wise nature, and so
lnasmuch as no seeds of such plants were pur
chasable, men were sent over the prairies Of
western Kansas and Colorado in September
and October of last year, with sacks over theii
shoulders and sheep shears In their hands, Il
cut off the tops of the ripened grasses anC
things, for it was desired to plant these germ,
and find out what they would do with cultiya
ton. Also forty kinds of grass and forage
plant seeds were imported from abroad, includ
ing eighteen or twenty varieties from India
These were all planted last spring on the eigh
acres IN the dry puiverized soil, together witt
about dozen species collected by the gras,
gatherers from the prairies. The latter specie,
were nearly all represented likewise by clever
varieties OF grass planted in the shape of sods
from one to five square rods of each, got within
the neighborhood of the station. Such was tn.
work OF the spring last year. The prickly weel
persisted In reappearing and gave an immens,
deal of trouble. Men had to 20 over the Lame
constantly with gloves and pick it out by hand
No water was contributed artifcially to tn,
ordinarily parched land and the experimental
party devoted its attention to putting up build
lngs for lodging the party and for storing seeS
while it waited to find out what would come VI
without water from soil that for lack of waite
had never produced anything before.
HOW THE GROUND WAS TREATED.
n fOh -,S1
matted straw, after the planting, and part wa
not. The part left uncovered produced yer,
little, for-as is usual in that region of wind
swept plains-the powdered surface soil. will
the seeds put in it, was blown away. But tn,
part covered with the straw produced, without
drop of water supplied save from the scanty
rains, far more abundant crop than was raised
with frst-rate irrigation TO help, on the rest o.
the eighty acres which had been sown to feeC
the mules and cattle of the expedition.
In word, it has been discovered that the
average soil Of the great American desert car
be made to produce plentiful harvests Of
grasses, forage plants, and, If those, then also
water than Is supplied at present 70 accom-
plish the result two things are needed-ths
ground must be pulverized deeply, to make
bed for holding the water that falls in rain
and the planted surface must be covered aftel
the sowing Of the first crop with matted straw
SuUsoQucut CfOps Will no straw, tQt
reason that the matted roots will keep the dry
earth from being blown away.
This Is an addition to human knowledge
which in the opinion of an Agricultural de-
partment official who talked to a STAR reporter
should throw open to agriculture hundreds o.
thousands of acres hitherto deemed WORTHLESS.
and add hundreds of millions of dollars to the
taxable valuation of the country.
RAISING SORGHUM.
Dr.Vasey, chief of the botanical division, who
has just returned from the Kansas grass sta.
ton, told The STAR reporter that among other
things the experiments above described had
proved that the desert land, unirrgated and
treated in the way mentioned would produce
from ten to twenty tons of sorghum per acre q
year. Every one knows what admirable cattle
fodder that is. And cattle are the wealth of a
western husbandman. Meat and its feed would
be readily grown and vegetables for human
consumption likewise. All the farmer need do
Is to conserve his water by deep blowing and
keep his loan from blowing away by pre-
liminary shift of straw. The straw applied is a
thin layer of clean wheat straw, which is mat
ted down by running heavy land-roller
over it.
True to the theory previously held by the
Agricultural department the eleven so
grasses native to the soil of West Kansas -four
ished in the unwatered earth, Gully moistened
by the scant rains. with the utmost luxuriance.
The grasses from India did not terminate,
probably because the long sea voyage in the
damp hold Of a vessel killed them. Some of
the other foreign grasses, however, did admir-
ably and forage plants likewise. For instance,
an imported forage plant called ..saufoin." re-