Los Angeles herald., 1905-07-30
CROPS WITHOUT IRRIGATION

'If we could have per cent of the fund that is now
being expended in irrigation plants by the government
to teach the people how to get along without in
semi-arid region could have many more happy
homes and SO much more wealth in this country"
That quotation Indicates the promise of what is
called the Campbell system of agriculture, which has
been alluded to heretofore in The Herald in cursory
way. For the first time now have description of
the method together with interesting data relative
it. For this indebted to the Chicago Record
Herald's wel-known attache, William E. Curtis who
describes the Campbell system at length in paper
written at Hill City, Kas. That is the point where the
originator of the system is demonstrating its
derful success.
The Campbell method has passed the experimental
stage, will be by examples of it's practical re-
suits Mr. Curtis says: Anyone who has doubts of the
practicability of the system should here before
harvest and compare the crops the Campbell farm
with those the farms that surround it, for the yield
of wheat oats potatoes and everything else will
be four five times great will be harvested on
surrounding farms"
The Campbell system does not contemplate the grow
ing of in absolutely arid region. 1t is adapted
however such conditions found in the agri-
cultural districts of Southern California, which call
semiarid. BY the system, claimed and demonstrated
according to the report of Mr. Curtis, you make
fourteen inches of rain far twenty-five thirty
inches in raising all kinds of crops plants trees
That promise nearly eliminates irrigation in South
California in years OF normal rainfu. In Los An
geles county the average precipitation for the last
twenty-five years 1914 inches In Bernardino
county was 1854 inches but other counties fell some
what below the Campbell standard of fourteen inches
1t is evident however, that comparatively little irrga
ton is needfu in this region If the Campbell method
will do here what is claimed for it in Kansas and
Colorado.
The fundamental feature of the Campbell system is
storing the ranfu in the soils Catch the rainfall and
where the roots of the plants reach IT, keep
the soil always fine and oose have firm, solid founda-
tion under the sofia bottom to hold the water" All
that is accomplished, described in this way:
I'VE stir up the soil with a revolving disk and then
going 1t again, fill up the furrow We call this
double dskng' 1t pulverlzes the soil and levels it off,
We keep going it again and again. beginning early
in the spring and continuing until the last OF June or
the first part of July After every rain stir up the
soil, either with disk Acme harrow Finally we
plow inches deep in the ordinary way and follow
the plow with a subsurface packer-a machine which
makes a compact, solid bottom four inches from the
surface under the loose SOIL Then go It again
with the Acme harrow as to keep the top soil loose
and pulverized."
BY this process one inch Of rainfall is worth two
or three inches in the ordinary method Of farming and
the careful preparation Of the soil far greater
crop yield. Much larger crops secured with the mini
mum OF water the practical results which Camp
bell system said to have demonstrated beyond ques-
tion.