Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1899-12-19
Success Attained in the Northern
Counties Of the State.
RAINFALL AND OTHER DATA
View. OF Prof. n. o.. Lin0cid OF the
Utah Agricultural college on
Dry Farm Problem.

Dry land farming. as It IA understood
In this State. ls the raising ~ crops ON
land without Irrigation. This " the
ordinary method Of raising crops In the
humid regions where the rain is cx-
pccted to supply all the moisture re-
qulrcd by the growing crops and at the
time needed.
A to when dry farming was first
practiccd In the State have had no
means of learning. hut 10 has been only
within the past ten or faccn years that
much attention has been devoted to IT,.
while perhaps ave years viii cover the
time when this method Of farming has
been extensively pracuoed. It ~.
however. yearly receiving more atten-
tion.
AVERAGE UTAH RAINFALL.
The average rainfall over the state
II from twelve to fourteen inches. that
IL. the rain land snow that falls would
mako depth OF twelve Inches OF wa
ter all over the country. II IN upon
this rainfall that the dry land farmer
has 20 depend for his crop, ana thus for
him the time when this rain falls IL OF
very great Importance. In the great
at tho right season to help the crops
towards maturity. and thus the prob
lem Tor the f0rfncS has been to 80 han
die his land as to conserve all the
moisture that falls upon Il DURING the
year. ana store Il In the surface soil Tor
the use OF the crop. II has been a
gradual process BY which the farmers
of the state have learned how to ham
die and cultivate their dry land farms
80 as to accomplish the above results.
but the knowledge Il cNtCnuir
with this extension. and the more thor
ough application Of the principles In
volvcd. We may expect to see thou
sands OF acres Of what II now COM
paratively waste land covered with
growing crops.
LOCAL CONDITIONS TO BE con-
sTDERsD.
1t would be probably useless to at
tempt to grow crop without irrigation
on upper bench lind where the surface
soil IL thin and oNerlaying "a graveily
subsoil. but there il little OF our valley
soils OF such a nature. AZ a rule the
roll II n deep alluvial loan with good
rctcntlvc powers. | have seen sue
ccssful crops without irrigation ON land
ranging from a clay loan TO almost "a
sand. when the subsoil was not por-
GUS.
CONSERVING MOISTURE.
When rain falls upon land which Is
hard and compact some OF II may pene-
trate the soil and some may run OF.
the proportion sfing In either direction
depending upot the violence Of Thy
storm and the slope OF the land. II
the soil was ploughed TO good depth,
say from eight TO ten inches. and left
| rough but not open enough for the air
to circulate through II. all the water
that falls upon IL would soak into the
ground, none would run on.
Observations ana experiment have
| proven that when the soil IL compact
and hard tho moisture that II con
tanned In Il ovaporates very rapidly
from the surface Into the air. Moistur,
deep down into the soil II brought &c
the surface In the same manner as tn,
oil In the lamp Is brought to the flame
II the supply OF oil gives out the wicl
Itself Is pumped almost dry before tbs
flame goes out. 80 the evaporation
from the surface OF the soil tends {,
draw the moisture up. and II II II mo-
| arrested Il goes on into the air az
| yapor drying the soil thoroughly. 1
has been found In practice that surface
tillnge breaks the pores by means %
which the moisture comes to the sur
face and thus prevents the evaporation
OF the water In the soil. This looSene,
our dry atmosphere may with adyan
tagc be three inches deep.
CONDITIONS OF SUCCESS.
Given the proper kind Of land Their
two conditions are necessary to sue
cessful dry farming! first, deep cult
walton TO prepare the land to recciv
and retain all tho moisture that fall
upon IL. and second. frequent surfao
cultivation. kept up pcrslstcntly, n
soon In the spring NJ there IN DANCE
OF evaporation from the surface, unles
the soil Is covered with II crop. Tn
] measure OF success In dry land farm
ing, that has been attained In tn
state has. to a large extent been du
To the proper understanding and nppl
cation OF these principles OF cultiva
ton.
l have visited some parts OF the stat
where the practice IL TO crop some
the land every second year only h'
cause OF the lack OF water, What Oh
rcrvationR I have mndc would seem
indicate that with proper cultivntio
much OF the land would produce croI
without irrigation II properly cult
waited. Even " the rainfall NJ two set
, sons had to be collected to get "A GRO
Il would add to tho returns from q
farm as the land that could be water,
could produce a crop every year. M
the other land crop every second yea
and thus udd nearly onc-third 10 u
returns from the farm.
II has been sometimes asked wheth
II would be- bcst TO irrgnte the di
. land farm " water could be obtain,
for one irrigation only during the sci
son Of high water. Perhaps most peop
would any by all means use the wat
and yet there are some points that Gu
for inquiry. II the land could be tho
: nurhlv soaked and then the surface W
again loosened there perhaps could