The Dickinson press. (Dickinson, Stark County, D.T. [i.e. N.D.]) 1883-1927, 1907-08-17
DRY Land
EXPERIMENTS
Interesting Article by L.
r. Waldron, Superin-
tendent Of the Dickinson
Sub-Station.

The writer recently returned from the
1907 meeting of the Great Plains dry
land experimenters held at Manhattan,
Kansas, and he has been requested to
write short account of the same.
Director Burnett, of the Nebraska sta
ton, presented paper dealing with the
probable future of the region as purely |
farming proposition. His advice was
not to devote ones entire energies to
grain farming or indeed to diversified
farming. He thought that SO far as
western Nebraska is concerned, not more
than five per cent of the land should be
broken, or if more than this was broken,
the excess should be laid down to grasses
or alfalfa. His opinion was that alto
gether too much land was being broken
by the new settlers in all of the Great
Plains area.
H. E. Hazen of Fl. Hays, Kansas, read
paper on the blowing of soils which
provoked an interesting discussion.
Practical experience was given by differ
ent men. Mr.. Payne related an instance
of how a corn crop was saved after a
heavy wind had commenced blowing.
Rows of corn two rods apart through the
field were cultivated, and this cultivation
stopped the blowing of the soil in the
space between that cultivation and the
next cultivated row. The portion of the
field that was gone over produced pay
ing crop. while portion of the field not
cultivated was a practical failure. The
newly disturbed dirt, when raised in
ridges, acts as sort of windbreak for
short distance during that storm. Plow-
ing burrows at distance of rod or so
has often saved crop. 1nsome parts of
western Kansas, farmers laid down strips
in grass between the cultivated areas,
the grass acting as windbreaks. While
soil blowing will not trouble our new set
tiers for two or three seasons, yet the
time will soon come when it will be an
important problem, especially if much
summer following or summer tillage is
done. Any rotation or method. Of farm
ing that exhausts the humus of the soil,
as continuous cropping and cultivation,
and which does not provide for return
of the humus in the shape of barnyard
manures or grass crops will intensity this
trouble. One of the chief troubles of the
so-called Campbell system of dry-land
farming is that it leads to rapid deple-
ton Of the organic matter Of the soil so
that in very few years the soil not only
will not retain moisture as it formerly
did, but it becomes very susceptible to
blowing. Heavy black soils, with an
abundance of lime, will stand such treat.
ment for quite a period, as witness the
best soils of Assiniboia, but in the aver.
age soils of the Great Plains, which have
a low humus content, such depicting
practice is not to be recommended. Nc
objection is raised to. the use of cleanly
titled field or a clean cultivated corr
crop as preparation for small grain
crop; such a preparation may often be
necessary, but vigorous objection is
raised to using such method continu
ally.
In one of the discussions, Colone
Perry, prosperous retired rancher o.
southern Kansas, brought out the fac1
that the Great Plains area was to become
region for the poor man who had q
home to make and family to raise under
conditions somewhat better than he could
hope for in a large city. working as q
laborer. Under such conditions the
farmer certainly can only afford to hus
band the wealth of the soil instead oI
wasting it, as is the tendency at the pres
ent time. If farmer looks upon hi:
land as means of livelihood rather thar
as a source of wealth, he will, in the long
run, be the more prosperous. In ordel
to make the Great Plains area a success
full mixed farming area, the farmers
must cut out the idea of getting ricl
quick, which so many of them have a
the present time.
J. E. Payne of Garden City, Kansas
gave an interesting talk on fruit in semi
arid regions. He stated that what wa
most needed in such aregion is a drought
resistant farmer along with the drought
resistant crops. He described some ex
amples of successful orcharding in west
ern Kansas and eastern Colorado witt
but small amount of irrigation.
Dr.. T. H. Kearney, of the Department
of Agriculture. gave paper dealing wit
a highly successful method of dry-lan'
agriculture, and although it is far CT
from Tunis to the Great Plains and fror
olives to wheat, yet his remarks had
practical bearing, for by learning wha
can be done successfully without irrigs
ton in practically desert country, til