The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-12-13
CROPS GROWN WITHOUT WATER
Result of Agricultural Depart
ment Experiments in the Amer

has reached the agricultural department
at Washington for long time past is con-
veyed by report just received from south
western 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 InerI-
dian to the base of the Rocky mountains, can
b made 10 bear profitable crops without
the aid OF Irrigation, through processes of
the simplest sort, devised and carried into
effect by government bo5anists during the
last few months. When 1t is considered
that the most enthusiastic advocates of If
rlgatlon IN the dry region admit the i'm
possibility of moistening, by artificial
means or otherwise, by far the greater
part OF the desert aforesaid the fabulous
value OF this discoverv-if thus it may De
.called-can be feebly guessed at. To make
a barren waste produce food plants prof.
taoly without supplying water-such was
the problem with which the botanical
division of tho agricultural department
found itself, while ago, confronted.
THE GARDEN CITY EXPERIMENT STATION.
Accordingly an experiment station was
started by the division last autumn in
southwest Kansas, not far from Garden
City. This particular location was chosen
OSce~N0O AOo COuQ1JlOuo nSIO bHDlC1l Vi LIE
ard region generally. Two hundred and
forty acres were bought-80 acres in one
spot and 100 in another. The land was
mostly open prairie, the surface a stiff clay
loan, the top of which was baked by the
sun into a firm crust almost as impervious
to rain as so much slate. About 20 inches
OF rain fell, it was learned, IN a twelve
month-pretty nearly the average through
out the desert belt, and, of course, it ran
of 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 pre-
llminary 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 were
not irrigated nor supplied with water in
any manner artifcially The eight acres.
as originally found were covered with
burr-grass and prickly perennial weed
with long botanical name that is regarded
out vest as worse curse than the Canada
thistle, being even more difficult to eradi-
cate. All this was cleared off in the early
part of last fall, the soil was plowed and
harro wed until throughly pulverized foot
deep, and last spring it was planted with
grasses and forage plants. 1t was
found that the winters frosts tended to
disintegrate the baked surface crust and
render it readily arabic. Only eight acres
were treated in this way, because there
were only seeds enough of the sorts desired
to plant that amount of space.
INDIGENOUS PLANTS.
The notion of the agricultural depart
ment has been that the food plants best
| adapted for agricultural use in the dry belt
had been already placed there by all-wise
nature, and so, inasUluch as no seeds of
such plants were purchasable, men were
| sent over the prairieS of western Kansas
| and Colorado in September aud October of
| last year, with sacks over their shoulders
| and sheep shears in their hands, to cut O IF
the tops OF the ripened grasses and things,
| for it was desired to plant these germs and
| find out what they would do with cultiva-
| ton. Also forty kinds of grass and forage
| plants, seeds were imported from abroad,
| including eighteen or twenty varieties
| from India. These were all planted last
| spring on the eight acres in the dry, pulver-
| lied soil. together with about a dozen
| species collected by the grass gatherers
| from the pTairies. The latter species were
nearly all represented likewise by eleven
| 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 the work of the spring last year.
| The prickly weed persisted in reappearing
| and gave an immense deal of trouble Men
had to go over the land constantly with
| gloves and pick it out by hand No water
| was contributed artificially to the ordina-
| rily parched land, and the experimental
| party devoted its attention to putting I'D
| buildings for lodging the party and for
| storing seed while it waited to find out
what would come up without water from
| soil that for lack of water had never pro-
| duced any thing before
HOW THE GROUND WAS TREATED.
Part of the eight acres was covered with
| matted straw after the planting, and part
| was not. The part left uncovered produced
| very little, for-as is usual in that region of
| wind-swept plains--the powered surface
| soil, with the seeds put in it, was blown
| away. But the part covered with the straw
| produced, without drop of water supplied
save from the scanty rains, a far more
abundant crop than was raised, with first
| rate irrigation to help, on the rest of the
eighty acres which had been sown to feed
the mules and cattle of the expedition
In word, it has been discovered that
the average soil of the great American des-
| ert can be made TO produce plentiful har-
| vests of grasses, forage plants, and, if those,
then also meat, corn and potatoes, without
any more water then is supplied at present
| To accomplish the result two things are
needed-the ground must be pulverized
| deeply, to make bed for holding the water
| that falls in rain, and the planted surface
| thusu 10 COVSFcQ dLGSr Inc sowing or the
first crop with matted straw. Subsequent
crops will require no straw, for the 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 Star re-
porter should throw open to agriculture
hundreds of thousands of acres hitherto
deemed worthless and add hundreds of
millions of dollars to the taxable valuation
of the country.
| RAISING SORGHUM
DIR. Vasey, chief Of the botanical divis-
ion, who has just returned from the Kan
sas grass station, told the Star reporter
that among other things the experiments
above described had proved that the desert
land, unirrigated 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 hushandman. 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 blow
ing away by preliminary shift of straw.
The straw applied is thin layer of clean
wheat straw, which is matted down by run
ming heavy land-roller over it,
IRxKnN O., ILL