Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1905-05-27
DRY FARMING SYSTEM
Soil Filling Method to Make
Semiarid Plains Bloom.
IRRIGATION DEEMED UNNECESSARY

Advantages OF system Destined 90
RevOIutiOnize Agriculture In the
Far weHt-LarEe Amount OF Money
Appropriated TO Carry Expert
ments on a Large Scale.
The short grass" country Of western
Nebraska and Wyoming. together with
northern Colorado. is thoroughly arous-
ed over dry farming" and is seeing
visions of Il time TO come when the
short grass" country will disappear.
| and in place of its hundreds of thou
sands of acres of land upon which cat
tie no,v Craze there will be great crops
OF wheat. corn. alfalfa and sugar beets.
says an Omah& tNeb.l dispatch.
Then tie great irrigation projects
now fathered by the government and
private capital will be useless. because
| crops; dry farming" will have taken
the place of the water.
The Cheyenne board OF trade and
business men OF that city recently APP
propriated $4,000 to experiment along
the line of the new system IN Wyo-
ming. the Union Pacific railroad has
| organized a department of dry farm
ing TO work under the direction OF
the industrial department of the Har-
riman system, the burlington road is
conducting experiments of it's own on
n farm OF 500 acres in western Nehras-
ka, one Colorado firm has employed
an expert to make Investigations on Its
big cattle ranch of 10000 acres, North
hnSinnSs haWn sinh
scribed several thousand dollars to-
ward experimenting in that section,
and hundred different farmers and
ranchmen in Laramie county. Wyo.,
have signed pledge agreeing to cul-
tivate at least five acres each accord
ing to directions issued from a central
body and to report results to that body.
BY dry farming is meant the cult
walton of land without irrigation in any
. form whatever. The lands affected are
those millions of acres OF semiarid
lands in the great west which are now
. turned over TO the cattlemen. the prai-
rie dogs. the rattlesnakes and the owls.
\ small portion of these lands have
been placed under bitches" and are
being irrigated, producing heavy re-
, turns on all crops. But If the efforts of
/ those interested In dry farming" prove
successful there will be added to the
cultivated areas hundreds OF millions
of acres OF lands now considered valu-
able only for grazing purposes.
The system used in dry farming is ri
diculously simple. Late in the summer
the soil is plOwed very deep. 1t is then
laid over in loose burrows, and when
tho meaper rainfall comes the loose soil
retains the moisture where 1t would
not even remain damp In hard ground.
To prevent evaporation the soil Is
loosely scratched. The following spring
the crop Is put in and cultivated in the
same manner as I'm other states. Crops
are raised only every other year. how
ever. under this system, the ground be-
ing permitted TO rest each alternating
year
Already several small farmers IN
eastern Wyoming have succeeded In
securing Il yield of thirty-five bushels
an acre of first class wheat, where for
merly no wheat whatever was grown
, except under the lrrlgating ditch.
Equally large crops Of corn. alfalfa and
sugar beets are promised to those who
, follow the same course OF cultivation.
Those who have been experimenting
with the system for several years de-
clare their lands increase in power to
hold water from year to year and state
/ that with five years of dry farming"
they will produce crops equal to those
produced In - ,ois and Iowa under
the most favorable conditions, II not
| larger.