The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1907-05-01
Dry Land Culture.

Dry Land Culture.
Taking one year with another the
average rainfall of this state is abun-
dant for all crops which we cultivate.
Yet there is seldom a season when at
some time we do not have a drouth
Of sufficient duration to injurious1y af-
feet the crops. OF course, an irrigation
plant of a capacity to water all the
land in cultivation, solves the question
completely, but sometimes and in some
cases that is impossible. For such
places a modification of the Campbell
System OF Dry Land Culture, seems
to promise the best remedy that is
available. This seems to be true in
Louisiana, and the Louisiana Planter
quotes from report of an Experiment
Station and advises trial of it in
that state. We think the same advice
would be good for many of our read
ers
The state of Nebraska has rather a
limited rainfall and yet it is known as
one of the greatest corn producing
states of the Union. In a recent
bulletin, No. 95, of the Agricultural
Experiment Station at North Platte,
Nebraska, on corn production in west
ern Nebraska, the matter of dry land
farming is discussed. Our readers are
more or less familiar with the Camp
bell system of dry land farming, and
we are led to believe that the method
advocated by the Nebraska experiment
station are similar. The familiar it,
lustration of the plank lying in dusty
road always showing moisture on it's
under side, proves that the earth is
always exhaling it's moisture and that
the conservation of this moisture in
some way is desirable for the promo
ton OF plant growth and in fact, neces-
sary in semi-arid countries and every
where in times of drought. Even in
the sugar belt of Louisiana, where we
have over sixty inches of annual rain
fall, our crops are frequently injured
by prolonged drought While perhaps
not the chief cause, drought was one
OF the causes OF the very short cane
crop of 1906, which will only reach
about 90 per cent Of the normal crop
OF the state.
Superintendent w. P. Snyder, in his
discussion Of dry land farming, brings
out the fact that the chief problem
is the conservation of the moisture in
the soil. Evidently in the state of
Nebraska there is an ample rainfall to
produce the enormous corn crop of
that state, although Nebraska IS fire.
quently classed with the states VI very
limited rainfall. Here, in Louisiana,
we suffer less from drought, but, never
theless, the same rules that obtain in
Nebraska for the conservation of
moisture do also obtain in Louisiana.
The Nebraska experiences and the
Campbell system of dry culture have
demonstrated thoroughly we'll the util-
1ty OF those methods and were we to
give them more attention we should
probably fare better than we now do.
1t is generally recognized that by keep
ing the top soil loose it breaks up
the existing lines of exit for the soil
moisture and results i'm the retention
OF the rising moisture of the soil be-
low this stratum OF fine mulch and
retained there, it is utilized by the
plant roots and promotes their growth.
One of the chief difficulties that we
labor under in Louisiana is the making.
OF place in the soil for the retention
OF soil moisture Some years back it
became quite the fashion to use sub