Rocky Ford enterprise., 1905-08-25

Z NHaihpSf Vi snhtusEAc q iNh NaeS abo
Professor Campbell explained his sys-
ten quite thoroughly tn the 200 or
more persons who gathered there To
form the Colorado Association for Sci,
entiie Farming. with view TO adopt
ing Professor campbeil's ideas In the
development Of the arid lands.
II have been AT this work for
good many years" said Professor
Campbell. ''ssome have asked me how
I happened Ia commence IL You have
the old adage that Necessity Is the
mother of invention haven't yous
Well. that's when. I was, I started
/ In III. Dakotas in 70. The FIRST three
years were simply ideal: I harvested
my third crop in =. and obtained over
1000 bushels of wheat from 500 scr.s
"a thing that has never been done
there since
when you consider the broad
stretch of absolutely level country we
had and III. rich black loan soil.
good water thirty feet below tn. sur
face. producing Euch results as that
for three years. is II any wonder
became -nIhusiasticg I Invested every
dollar ! had ia farms. ani urged all
of my friends To invest. and ! bor.
rowci Just as far ms dared.
thought I had struck the garden spot
of this great country: but the very
next year riEhI on top of this cnor-
nous crop. N- raised almost nothing.
and !, was hero ! began.
"A littl" Incident In connection with
\ the work OF SIN III" fall "" com.
m.nccd plowins hack this ground. We
hni no min ia the fall aud Ne con-
mcnc-d piowins this ground over dry.
Also sut in tNo tracts of thiTiy'two
acrck each cn n quarter section when
II frorc M. Thnt winter We had quite
n little SNOW. In the Hprins. the
moisture pcrcoisicd into the soil and
We had one quite early rain. The 'irst
thlns did In III" spring was To inlhh
plo9ins these lands. following with n
harrow. TIL. result WIS tha, the two
lands that we piowcd In the rprin.
| gave us :O.bush.i crop while prnc-
tIcnliy all Ne piovcd In the fall We
never harvested. was not alone. A
/ few others there hnd the same re-
| suits. What was our conclusions!
| That Eprin. plowIn. was the thing.
| Now you see how easily We can be de.
cci,cd. Fall piowinr would not do:
| II was Demonstrated to us: so the next
year We placed quite n portion of II
under plow In the spring. only to IND
that fall piowin. gave us u crop aud
spring piowin. nothing. This was my
experience for seven ar eight years
before I discovered single fundamcn.
tai principle by which could do the
same thing and get the sane rcfult.
Now wc frequently see In print
the Campbell System We Frequently
hear people say they know what II IN.
Gentlemen. I must admit ! don't know
/ myself Every year. we md some
/ thing ncw-wc reach out a It'll. lar
thcr. Something like ten years ago
| devised the Hub.surfacc packer
thought had solved the whole thing.
only to md ON top of that that surface
cuitiya,or you hear 80 much about II
great thing. Then ! conceived the
Idea OF drilling with the rows twenty
inches apart md cultiyatlng. built u
mnchin" which was u success! Sixty.
two were built next year and put on
tho market In 'gG In North Dakota
wc raised twenty-five and one-half
bushels OF wheat, iiny-siS bushels OF
barley. md ninciy.two bushels OF oats:
but we soon discovered difficulty.
We had to be so extremely careful In
cultivnting 10 that we would not In.
jure the crop.
I'VE finally dropped into the idea Of
summer tilling. Begin in the spring
early by double dlsking. Let me Illus.
tratc as to what the loosening up Of
the soil may mean. Down In Texas In
the Panhandle district, where we are
working this year. we had four weeks
OF dry weather. The fields adjoining
ours had no moisture whatever. while
our field was very moist clear down TO
four feet and two inches. When the
surface Is loosencd up. the water can
| 20 in and as soon as II comes In con
| tact with the moist soil below, goes I'm.
mediataly down. This Is illustrated In
watering n plant. When you turn the
water on 1t, at first 1t does not seem to
percolate at all. but 1t soon works Its
way down in. and all disappears;
comes irto contact with moist soil and
goes to the bottom.
Another feature which seems to me
extremely wonderful is the fact that
we lose no water by percolation. Ma.
/ ture seems to have provided that this
great stretch of country here where we
get normal rainfall should not let the
water go on down in, but after II
reaches the bottom. 1t begins to work
Its way up again. When we have had
| moisture down say three to four feet,
and had four to six weeks without rain.
there is no variation in the depth of
the moist soil to exceed two inches in
all that time.
1--WE have attempted to show you we
can store the water In the soil. We
| have made the statement that II Will
come back. Now comes the question
of handling that top seven or eight
inches of soil in such n way as to hold
the moisture in the ground so that 1t
can be used during long dry spell
when VIC can get no rain. This is the
thing that has played the mischief. We
have found after years of ex.
perimenting that the finer and firmer
we can get that soil-say to depth of
,a,o,, o, ninIt inchnS-Ihn moro Mu.