Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1906-12-27
DRY FAR MING IS
GREAT SUCCESS
SHOWN THAT LARGER AND BET
TER CROPS ARE GROWN ON
LESS ACREAGE
Farm Values Increase Rapidly Where
Methods are Employed-Western
Nebraska Makes Good Under New
Dispensation.
From Wednesdays Daily.

From Wednesdays Daily.
That the Campbell system Of dry
land farming is simple, practical apd
successful is the statement made by
D. Glenn Deaver of the Burlington
Rollts Homeseekers' Information Blu
reau at Omaha, Neb. The Campbell
system has been given a thorough
trial in western Nebraska, where con-
6tions are peculiarly favorable. and
i There has been consequent steady
lrise In land values Mr.. Beaver says:
There is nothing mysterious or I'M
reasonable about the Campbell sys-
tenn of soil culture: it is simply plain
ordinary common sense as developed
by scientific methods applied to the
t,lIing Of the soil Although not as
much land can be farmed under the
Campbell system as under the old, it
Is true that forty acres intensely
farmed will produce almost twice as
much as will similar acreage under
the old methods.
Generally speaking, the western
part OF Nebraska is largely adapted TO
the Campbell system. While it is true
that considerable land in that section
Is valuable only for grazing purposes,
there is mixed with it a large area Of
valuable farming land
Opposed to the cid idea of raising
stock only and doing nothing which
could not be done on horseback, is
the new idea of thorough cultivation.
It has remained for the new settler to
demonstrate what the country is most
valuable for 1t is impossible to raise
the best crops any place unless the
&c fn. fx, =
proper manner. In the past the meth
cd OF filling the. soil was such that no
reasonable person could expect sue
cessful crop. For instance, until re-
Gently, 1T has been the common prac-.
lice OF farmers, when harvesting
wheat oats. and other small grains, to
let the stubble lay as the binder pass
ed over it until time to pillow for fall
wheat
In such cases the result is that il
we have any dry weather at all the
land cakes, and when plowed in the
TALL breaks up in large chunks. per-
hitting the air to penetrate to the
bottom OF the, plowed ground and thor
oughly dry it out unless the blowing
Is followed with rain; but the proper
thing to do in such cases is to follow
the binder with disc harrow and
thereby mulch the ground about two
inches deep. After each rain this
muicned ground should be narrowed.
Th1s OF course requires more work,
but the result is that when the ground
ls plowed in the fall it will break up
nice and mellow, whether there has
been much rain or not, since the bind
er harvesting former crop has pass
ed over 1t. Another result is that the
ground Is in such good condition to
receive the seed for the next crop that
scarcely more than one-half OF the
seed sown under the old method need
be sown under the Campbell system
OF soil culture, since the ground be-.
Ing mellow and moist, every grain has
an opportunity to sprout and repro
duce itself.
know of several locations wnere
winter wheat, raised under the Camp.
bell system of soil culture, has pro.
duced from thirty to fifty bushels an
acre, where the same kind OF lano n
the same neighborhood, farmed under
the old method, produced from six
teen to twenty-eight bushels per acre.
The rise in the value of western
Nebraska and has been simply won
derful and in my opinion will continue.
Land that short time ago could have
been bought for 81 to IS an acre is
now selling repidly at 81 to. SIS. Not
long since almost any improved land
IN Nebraska was a drag on the mar
ket, but today land that is at all desir-
able is quickly picked up.
Western Nebraska farmers who
formerly depended almost wholly on
grain, now keep dairy herds, use hand
cream separators, and sell cream
along with other products"