Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1907-05-10
IS The
BENEFACTOR OF
MAN WITH HOE
DRY FARMING SYSTEM
Is REVOLUTIONARY
Wonderful Message Of Modest
Practical Scientist May En-
able Gray Old World to
Multiply Population,

Multiply Population,
Parker Earl of Roswell, writing to
THE Earth" voices a most enthusi-
astic appreciation Of the work that
The father Of dry farming has done
for the west. He says:
1t will soon be generally realized
and acknowledged that Mr.. Campbell
is the greatest benefaetor of agricul-
ture in America. His system of Gull
ture is revolutionary in methods and
results, and yet it is not new. except
in one important process-that Of sub
surface packing of the deeply pre-
pared soil. He ploWs deeply and pull
Verizes carefully-the deeper and
more carefully the better. So does the
thoroughbred farmer of the old states
and Of the old times, as well as of the
present. Eight inches. ten inches, or
twelve inches of thoroughly pulverized
soil, except in the one vital item of
sub-surface packing, is not an unus-
ual or modern achievement of the best
farmer or the good gardener of the
ola World or the New.
But no one has seen so clearly as
Mr.. Campbell the vast import of so
compacting again the deeply ploWed
and pulverized soil hat it will retain
the moisture gotten from the rain, so
that growing crops nay be supported.
His plan of packing all of the deeply
prepared soil 50 that 1t cannot let
the moisture escape by capiliarity, and
by the same machine leave a shallow
surface mulch of fine, loose soil is not
well understood generally, and has not
been sufficiently explained, and the
particular implement, his "~sub-surfacH
packer" does not seem to be made
and offered to the public. This is a
matter that should be remedied.
Every farmer knows, if he ploWs
and pulverizes six inches deep after a
rain, and leaves the soil loose, that this
siX-inch stratum will at once dry out,
down to the solid ground, by the
power of wind and sun; and he also
knows, if he allows the land to lie I'M
touched after the same rain, that il
will bake, dry out, and that vegeta-
Bile growth Will be arrested. Hence,
the resort to a light surface cultivation
after every rain, or every irrigation,
to save the moisture in the sub-sur-
face.
To prepare land so that it will alb
sOrb all the rain that falls on the field.
ana to so handle the soil that all the
rain will be saved for use of the grow
ing crop has always been the chief
problem of the farmer. At least one
half the rain that fails on American
farms runs off to swell the streams
because the surface is hard and can
not absorb it.. The three or four
inches of surface in the mellow field
cannot hold water enough or hold Il
long enough so hat the sub-soil can
drink it in. But with ten inches of
prepared soil a great rain can be held
until the unbroken sub-soil can
absorb and conserve it all.
Does the country with thirty inches
of annual rain. which is so badly
managed that half of it runs away to
increase some damaging %inundation.
any advantage over a similar
country so wisely farmed that all of
its fifteen inches of rainfall is saved
the needs of the croDs9
! assume that fifteen inches OF
yearly rain is as much as is yearly
on the average. to produce the
Of the United States. And. If
cultivation was as carefully
followed as Mr.. CampbelTs ssvtem
calls for. that those crops would be
than they now are. Now. Mr..
Campbell comes to us with a plan of
anagcmen which will enable the
farmer who has but the fifteen inches
IF rain to grow as large crops as he
who has thirty inches and wastes half
IF It.
And what does this mean2 About
of he American continent IS
1t has. we will saw. but
bout the fifteen inches of rain. which S
the old and careless system of I
.ulture Is not enough to prouce good I
.ereal crops. But under the ''Camp-
,elI system" larger crops are grown \
With this smaller water supply. than {
he average Yields of many states q
Does this mean that Mr.. GamnbeU-s q
of thorough going FARMING win +
iearlv double the area of proftabIe s
arming lands I'm America ? d
If il means as much as this II /
much more. For the same svs- q
of deem preparation of the ground &
hat will secure crops with a light {
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