Rocky Ford enterprise., 1897-02-18
CROPS FROM THE ARIDLAND.
Draught Can Bs Overcome by Suitable
Methods of Cultivation.

utternnces of the political press, to i'm
aSlne the railways and farmers always
affayed against each other in stern
Dattle for supremacy. That this Is not
always the case is evidenced by the re-
markable work In agricultural educa-
tlon which Is being prosecuted by sew
eral OF the great railway lines which
traverse the sub-humid belt, In which
Is situated large portions of the Da-
kotas, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma,
IeXas and several other states. In this
semi-arid region the rainfall Is SO
scanty as to make farming by ordinary
methods most precarious business,
crop failures as often as seven years in
ten being the record in some localities.
These failures result. not from any. de-
rect In the fertility Of the soil, but from
drought. During the early SOS sue
cession of moist seasons gave these
prairies the reputation of being the
farmers paradise. The railway trains
groaned under the loads of outgoing
produce and incoming immigrants.
The townsite "boomer' and real estate
and loan agent flourished npace. MIL
lions of dollars from Europe and our
own Eastern states We're invested here
In the belief that In these new COM
monwealths the history of Iowa and
Illinois was to be repeated.
Just one thing prevented the rruItion
OF these hOpes-the climate. After n
few years of tillage the soil became
less fitted to retain moisture. This
fact, coupled with rather drier type
OF weather, brought ruin to the sub
humid belt. The railways gradually
came to run light, infrequent and un-
profitable trains; the farmers left the
country In great numbers, and those
who remained maintained a losing
light against the odds Of scanty rain
fall and hot winds. 1t seemed that the
country was doomed to revert again to
the state of a sparsely settled region,
exclusively devoted to stock raising.
But now come these Western rail-
way lines with the great grain COM
panies OF Minneapolis as their allies,
and Joining hands with the drouth-
stricken settler. enter under the leader
ship Of philosopher named II. w.
Campbell, n resident OF Sioux City,
Iowa. For year or so past the papers
have contained references to the
Campbell method" of farming In the
dry belt. and the model farms operated
under It. Recently popular interest
has been revived from the announce
ment through the newspapers OF the
fact that the enlightened management
OF the Burlington l. Missouri River
Railway In Nebraska had established
chain of model farms extending from
Hastings, Nebraska. to Obcrlin, Kan
sas. to be operated under the Campbell
method next year. A sketch OF the
Campbell method cannot fail to inter-
est the general reader. and especially
that numerous class east and west who
have made investments In the sub
humid belt.
Hardy W. Campbell settled near Alb
erdeen, South Dakota. during the
boom" times Of the early sos. He
was by turns n land agent. hotel keeper
and farmer. and In all these occupa-
tions suffered from the drouths, as did
every resident OF the territory. Others
said: when the country gets older we
shall get more rain" or 1T Is always
SO In new country: just look ut the
history Of the states further east"
But, though possessed of his full share
of Western optimism, Mr.. Campbell
mixed with 1t good share of saving
common sense. He studied climatic
conditions and became convinced that
the country he had settled In always
has been, Is now and ever will be
region of scanty precipitation. and that
climatic conditions I'm the main do not
cIlIEe. Ill slloTt. ne lthHoWltuSeu the
fact that the conditions were such as to
make ordinary farming Il failure.
But he went further. He calculated
that. with an annual precipitation of
not far from twenty inches of wnter.
crops ought to he successfully grown
every year unless the water Is used up
some way aside from the growth of
plants. An inch of water weighs In
excess of 100 tons an acre, and twenty
inches more than 1000 tons. A grow
ing plant does not need more than 300
times Its dry weight. 1t Is very good
crop, indeed, which. dried. weighs more
than thirty tons an acre. Therefore
900 tons ought to be enough for the
actual use of any crop. The reader
sees, as Mr.. Campbell saw. that even
after growing good crop LOO tons
Of water ought to be left over. unless
somehow the water had slipped away
and played truant.
1t took him very short time indeed
to discover the paramour with which
the odd 100 tons of water clopcd. I'm
PEELED by the urtlours of the Dakota
summer. II Is that prairie breeze, 80
fresh, so free" which poets have so
highly praised. In the spring the
''semi-arid belt" blossoms as the rose.
under the influence OF the vernnl rains.
But June, July ana August brtng not
winds which lick up the moisture, sap
the vitals Of the growing plant, and
cause the evil effects of drought. How
to carry crops over this period was the
problem to which he addressed him
self.
For ten years he observed. studied
and experimental. At last, after on
during all the trials which usually fall
to the lot OF the rcformcr. he evolved
the Campbell method" and Is now
teaching It to the West, assisted by
many men of prominence, NIL confident
that by 1t that range of sub-humid
states stretching from North Dakota to
Texas will be made as reliable, agri-
culturally speaking, as Iowa and Illi-
nois.,
The Campbell method is n reform In
tillnge. 1t rests on three foundation
stones - deep plowing, sub-surface
packing, frequent shallow surface cul-
tivation. The objects of these opera
tions are to form nn ample reservoir In
the root-bed for moisture, to promote
capillary attraction, to draw up moist
ure from beneath and to prevent the
escape of moisture by evaporation
from the surface.
The prairie soils have lain for cen
turtles In the same position. and are
filed with channels washed out by the
downward movement of moisture by
NJ "a I..t. l..