Rogue River courier. (Grants Pass, Or.) 1886-1927, 1905-08-25
SYSTEM OF FARMING
ON SEMl-ARI0 LAND
A Minnesota Farmer Who Prac-
tices Summer Tillins" and
Raises Big Crops.

The following Is from the Little
Falls Herald, OF Morrison county,
Mimi. wherein is given a system of
dry farming by Que H. W. Campbell.
1t is believed it will prove an inter
esting article to many of our farmers.
The article follows:
Anyone who has doubts of the
practicability of the Campbell sys-
tenn should come here before harvest
and compare the crops on the Pome-
roy farm with those upon the farms
that surround it, for the yield of
wheat, oats, corn, potatoes and every
thing 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 Ne
braska and Kansas for 20 years or
more, trying to induce farmers to
adopt his plan of soil culture, ''as he
calls it, and everywhere he has been
from the James River in the north to
the Arkansas, he has been equally
successful in producing without irri-
CATION the same results that are
usually expected with irrigation
with comparatively little more ex-
pense, but good deal more care and
labor. The whole thing is simply
the exercise of care and patience,
and any man of ordinary intelligence
can work it as we'll as college pro-
fessor could.
Mr.. Campbell's principles, as he
explained 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 a firm, solid foundation
under the sofia bottom to hold the
water.
"what will this accomplish" l
asked.
1.-THE careful. regular application
of these principles in farming will
produce at least three times the re-
suits of ordinary farming, and often
four or i've times the results, said
Mr.. Campbell.
tGXlh.t 10 thaf additional awpanga ~
"In Iowa or eastern Kansas not
more than % per cent more labor is
necessary than is usually expended
upon crop by good farmer. On
the prairies, as q rule, farming is
cheap and slipshod and twice the
labor is necessary. But this is offset
to certain extent by saving of
two. thirds of the seed. An ordinary
farmer sows 40 quarts OF wheat to the
acre and gets from nothing to 20
bushels, 10 bushels to the acre being
the average crop of the state, and Is
bushels the highest state average that
has been reached in Kansas for 10
years. Under my system any pains
taking farmer by sowing l2 quarts of
wheat to the acre and uultiyating
his soil carefully will harvest any
where from 40 to 56 bushels without
! fail "
How do you do it,"
"By storing the rainfall in the
soil, " answered Mr.. Campbell, "by
keeping the surface of the ground
always loose, which stops evaporation.
1t is impossible for moisture to rise
to the surface through loose soil, and
that leaves the ground in the best con
dition to receive the next rainfall.
Thus you can make IA inches of rain
90 as far qs % inches in rsising all
kinds of crops or plants or trees. We
do net loss any of the rain-we have
full benefit Of it. We keep it stored
where the roots OF the plants can
reach it when they need it. -
"How do you accomplish this'"
"By stirring up the soil with a
revolving disk, and then going ovel
1t again and filling up the furrow,
We call this double disking II
pulverizes the soil and levels it off
We keep going over it again ant
again, begin early in the spring ant
continuing until the last OF June ol
the first part OF July. After every
rain we stir up the soil. either will
a disk or an Acme harrow. Finally
we plow seven inches deep in th'
ordinary way and follow the plov
with a subsurface packet-s machine
which makes a compact solid bottom
four inches from the surface, unde
the loose soil. Then we go over /
again with the Acme harrow so as u
keep the top soil loose and pulver
lied. After working tho soil for
year in this way by what we cal
GUNNER tilliug. we put in ou
wheat. either in the fall or in tn
klrlugt As IL USUAL Luz hAhh gNo
we do not put IN any seed. We simpl
keep stirring up the soil that it vii
remain loose and pulyerized, and afte
one year Of this sort Of cultivation
three crops can be grown in succes
: sion without renewing the tilling. i
some cases it is better to till ever
other year and raise crop alternat
years.
II crops are planted every yeai
the reaper must be Immediately fol
! lowed BY the plow and the stubbl
p Immediately turned under and th
70 soil disk aud harrow kept at wor
ali winter if il IL spring wheat, q
: from June harvest to the septembe
planting If winter wheat. The sam
rule must be applied to all the oth'
I kinds Of crops
ITO repeat: IL is simply aquestio