The Elbert County tribune., 1904-03-10
TO CONQUER DRouTH.

To conquer the drouth; to convert the
parched prairie into garden OF grain-in
short, to make eastern Colorado as pro-
ductive as a Missouri valley. This is the
miracle that system OF scientific soil
culture works.
No rain compeller is this marvellous
enterprise. There is nothing artificial
about it and no mystery to it. 1t is sim
Pile science. 1t gives nature an oppor-
tunity to do her best. II is an observ-
ance OF the law of physics, and only
this, says an authority on this subject.
On his death bed an old farmer, wise
old man, told his sons that treasure
was buried somewhere on his little farm,
and that as they plowed and worked with
the hoe to watch out for it. The boys
plowed and worked with their hoes so
assiduously that the splendid yield from
their products gave them bountiful re-
turns, which was better than the treas
ure which they never turned up.
Under the Campbell system of soil
culture myriads OF treasure troves buried
upon the plains of eastern Colorado,
Nebraska and Kansas may be uncovered.
II the owners of those lands, now almost
worthless except as growing ranches,
will plow and cultivate according to this
scientific system, the returns in wheat,
corn, orchards, alfalfa and many other
crops will be enormous and will in time
make those lands worth 500 an acre.
The system which will produce such
wonderful results is like most good things
of the kind-quite simple. 1t consists
of plowing and cultivating. that's ALL
The farmer who owns this prairie land is
asked only to go out upon it with his
plow and turn the soil to depth OF from
four to eight inches, according to the ma
ture OF the subsoil. If left in that CON
dition the land will crack in this arid at
mosphere. When the earth cracks then
all of the natural moisture evaporates
quickly. That is well known fact To
avoid that the farmer is asked to go over
his land, freshly plowed, with what is
called a packer" This is in the shape
of a wheeled roller that makes the fresh
earth compact and secure against the
escape of the moisture. The packer"
leaves the earth so that all of the natural
moisture, turned up by the deep plows,
is held in the ground to nourish the grain
or vegetables that will be sown or plant
ed later.
Then, after each rain the "cultivators"
go over this surface to depth of not
more than two and half inches. This
must be done as quickly as possible after
the rain. Delay would mean that the
ground would crack, as is The case in
such climate, and through these crew
ices the moisture would be sucked up
by the powerful sun and dry air. When
this is done the ground is ready for the
grain or whatever is desired as a crop.
In the case OF corn or potatoes this light
cultivation must be kept up between the
rows, but, of course, in the case Of wheat,
oats or alfalfa nothing further along the
line can be done.
Experience has shown that as result
of this scientific culture the fertility of
the soil in arid regions has been more
than doubled. The system is based on
that the moisture moves in the soil, that
it can be made more or less available to
vegetable life, and that capillary attrac-
tion lifts the water to the surface from
below.