Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1903-09-19
The Summer FaIIow.

How much value has the summer
fallow? We find this a question that
has received the attention of agricul-
trists for thousands of years and yet
is being fiercely contested, at least
in certain parts OF the agricultural
world. AS long ago as Bible days
the matter was one claiming attention
and one of the prophets chided the
people for not permitting their land to
rest. The summer fallow was prac-
ticed in those far distant times This
is perhaps what has given the sum-
mer fallow such a reputation. Until
the last generation the tillers of soil
on the American continent believed
the fallow to be a good thing. Later
agricultural science, however, has de-
clared against it quite generally, but
not universally.
In most of our humid states the
students of agriculture and of agricul-
tural conditions have come to believe
that the summer fallow is always a
bad thing; that leaving the land ex-
posed to the sun burns up the humus
in the immediate surface layer of
soil, and this is undoubtedly the case.
Our best experimenters declare that
crop of weeds is far better for
land than to leave it bare, that the
soil may be preserved in a loose,
moist, friab1e condition and the humus
be saved. This shading is also favor
able to the development of soluble
nitrates in the soil, which later are
used by the crops.
1t was, therefore, with a good deal
of surprise that on visit to Western
Canada the writer found the summer
fallow not only in common and gen.
eral use but enjoying a most enviable
reputation as a cause OF abundant
crops. In fact, summer fallow is now
practiced all the way from Manitoba
west to the Rocky Mountains, being in
general use in the province named.
Even such man of reputation as j.
Obed Smith. the Commissioner of I'm
migration at Winnipeg, declared to
the writer that the farmers OF the
Northwest territories cid not know
how to farm there till they discovered
the great use of the summer fallow.
The land is permitted to lie fallow one
third of the time. A piece of land
is plowed in June and after the sod
has rotted it is "backset," the last OF
August or the first of September.
The next spring it is sown. to, say
Wncdt - crop Is IdhSu Oh that 1dll
and the next spring a crop of wheat
is drilled on the stubble without plow-
ing and second crop of wheat is har-
vested that fall. The land is summer
fallowed the next year.
Why this treatment should result
in good crops we were not able to
learn, nor were the farmers them
selves able to give a good reason. 1t
is interesting to note that in Mani
toba a few of the most successful
farmers have begun a vigorous war
against the summer fallow. There
are farmers in that province who re
gard the summer follow as a fallacy
and have raised magnificent crops
without it. Quite a number of these
men make their voices heard at the
farmers institutes and through their
local agricultural papers. 1t may be
that this practice will be found to be
without value. 1t must, however, be
remembered that at the experiment
station at Indian Head, Assiniboia
the summer fallow idea is believed in
and practiced. We saw a magnificent
field of wheat there growing entirely
without manure, and it was the
twentieth crop without manure.