Fergus County Democrat. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1904-1919, 1905-10-24
Professor Atkinson, AQronomist at
Montana Experiment Station
Writes Good Paper.
OF INTEREST TO FERGUS PEOPLE
Deep Breaking and Prompt Cultiva-
tion Are Two Prime Essentials of
Dry Land Farming.

The following paper on the subject
Dry Land Farming" was prepared by
Prof. Atkinson, the well known ex-
pert who is connected with the Mon
tana Experiment station at Bozeman.
This copy is furnished to The Dem
ocrat through the kindness of Rev.
Henry Quickenden, who, during his
visit to Bozeman last week had an in
teresting talk with Prof Atkinson on
this subject, which is of such impor-
tance to the ranchers, or a larger
number of them, of Fergus county:
A glance at the physiographic clas-
sification of land areas throughout the
semi-arid west reveals the fact that
the location of millions of acres is such
as to preclude all irrigation possibili-
ties. This land contains all the es-
sential plant food elements for the
growth of maximum crops. The diff
ficulty that confronts the farmer here
is the apparently insufficient moisture
supply and when this land is farmed
it must be under the system known
as "dry land farming" During the
past ten years considerable of this
land has been devoted to crop growing,
and in many instances good returns
were gained for the money invested.
With this existing possibility, it may
not be inappropriate to consider the
essentials to success in this class Of
agricultural practice.
While plants require large amount
of water for growth, some as high as
500 pounds for each pound of dry mat
ter produced, yet when we figure the
water required to mature a crop in
terms of inches rainfall it appears to
be very slight. Seven inches precip-
itation conveys enough water to the
earth to grow good cereal crop.
Since the average annual precipitation
Of this area is not less than 12 inch
es and in some cases as high as IS
inches, it is evident that if half this
moisture were saved, paying crops
could be grown.
In preparing the soil for dry land
crop the first essential is to have a
seed bed that will store the maximum
amount of water When land is to
be broken for the first time experience
seems to indicate that this can be best
done in the spring or at least not lat
er than June. AS to the depth, little
definite experimentation has been car
rled on to determine this, but the gen.
eral practice is to break from to 6
inches deep. The deeper the soil is
broken the first time, the greater re-
servoir of loose earth there will be to
hold moisture later.
The soil will be harder to work
down for a year or two, but better
results seem to attend deep breaking
eventually.
AS the breaking is being done it is
important to keep the land cultivat-
ed. A good plan is to disk the part
plowed during the day before leaving
the field in the evening. The land
will work down more easily when in
this condition than if the land is al
lowed to remain untouched for a time;
and since the dislzing fills the crevices
and forms mulch on the surface;
any moisture that may be present is
prevented from escaping. If the fur
rows are allowed to remain just as
the plow leaves them, hard and COM
pressed, with spaces between them
such that the air circulates freely, ev-
cry particle of moisture present either
in the burrows or the underlying soil
escapes. This leaves the soil hard to
work into seedbed condition, and since
moisture is lacking the humus or veg
etable matter that has been turned
under does not decompose.
Early spring cultivation ought to fol-
low on land that has been fall plow-
ed. An experiment reported by King
| of Wisconsin in his physics of Ag-
| riculture' brings out the value of this.
He determined the spring moisture
| content of piece of fall plowing as
soon as the soil was in a condition
to be cultivated. He then had a por-
| tlon of the ground cultivated while
a similar portion was allowed to re-
main untouched. Seven days later
moisture determinations on the two
areas showed that there was a slight
gain in the percentage moisture in the
surface foot of the cultivated area,
while on the uncultivated area, six
pounds of moisture, an equivalent OF
an inch and three-quarters precipita-
ton had been lost from the surface
root This shows the necessity of ear
~ cultivation, especially in dry land
farming. When the atmosphere be,
comes warm enough to evaporate wa
ter from the surface moisture that
mas been deposited there during the
Iail and winter goes very rapidly
with the soil in packed condition as
we hnd it in the spring water moves
through 1t rapidly from particle to par
tlcle. This movement is from the
wet to the dryer parts and as the dry