Little Falls herald. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1889-1950, 1905-08-04
ABOUT DRY FARMING
Production Of Big Crops
Without Much
Rain

1t has been very wet in Morrison
county this year, but some years it
has been quite dry. and dry season
may come again. Therefore it will be
interesting to read of the 81. W.
Campbell system of dry farminz, as
described by W. e. Curtis in the Chi.
cage Record Herald:
Anyone who has doubts of the prac-
ticability of the Campbell system
should come here before harvest and
compare the crops on the Pomeroy
farm with those upon the farms that
surround it, for the yield of wheat,
oats, corn, potatoes and every tning
else that is growing will be four or
five times as great as will be harvested
on the other side of the fence.
Mr.. Campbell has been working in
North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebras.
Ia and Kansas for twenty years or
more, trying to induce the farmers to
adopt his plan Of ''eoil colture,' AZ
he calls 1t, and everywhere he has
been, from the James river in the
north to the Arkansas, he has been
equally successful In producing with.
out irrigation the same results that
are usually expected with irrigation.
with comparatively little more e.
pense but good deal more care and
labor. The whole thing ls simply the
exercise Of care and patience, and any
man Of ordinary intelligence can work
1t as well as college professor could.
Mr.. Campbell's principles, as he e.
plains them to me. are:
!. Catch the rainfall and store it
where the roots of the plant can reach
it.
2. Keep the soil always fine and
loose.
3. Have q firm, solid foundation
under the sofia bottom to hold the
water
"whst will this accomplish"
asked.
The careful regular application Of
these principles in farming will pro.
duce at least three times the results of
ordinary farming, and often four or
five times the results, said Mr..
Campbell.
What is that additional expense.
In Iowa or eastern Kansas net
more than Is Ger cent more labor is
necessary than is usually expended
uDon crop by good farmer. On
the prairies as a rule. farming is
cheap and slipshod and twice the Ia
| Dor is necessary. But this lie Offset to a
certain extent by saving of two.
thirds of the seed. An ordinary farm.
er sows forty quarts Of wheat to the
acre and gets from nothing to twenty
bushels, thirteen bushels to the acre
being the average crop Of the state,
and fifteen bushels the highest state
average that has been reached in
Kansas for ten years. Under my sys.
tenn aby psinstaking farmer by SOW.
ing twelve quarts Of wheat to the
acre and cultivating his soil carefully
will harvest anywhere from forty to
ffty'six bushels without fail.
"How do you do it1''
by storing the rainfall in the
soil,' answered Mr.. Campbell; by
keeping the surface of the ground a.
ways loose, which stops evaporation.
It is impossible for moisture TO rise to
the surface through loose soil, and
that leaves the ground in the Rest
condition to receive the next rainfall.
Thus you can make fourteen inches Of
rain go a. far ~ twenty-five inches in
raising all kinds Of crops or plants or
trees. We do not lose any Of the rain
we have the full benefit Of it. We
keep it stored where the roots Of the
plants can reach it when they need
! it,"
"8ow do you accomplish this1'
by stirring up the soil with re-
volving disk and then going over 1t
again and filing up the furrow. We
call this double diskina.' 1t pulver-
lies the soil and levels it off. We keep
going over 1t again and again. be-
ginning early in the spring and con-
tinuine until the last of June or the
first part of July. After every rain
we stir up the soil, either with. q
dick u an Acme harrow. Finally We
plow seven inches deep in the ordin.
iary way and follow the plow with .
subsurface packers machine which
makes q compact, solid bottom. four