East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1908-12-25
EXPERIMENTS IN
DRY FARMING
WASHINGTON AGRICULTURAL
COLLEGE PROVES THEORY
Shows That Acreage Production Can
and Has Been Increased by Appli-
cation of Scientific Methods In Ag-
rlculture-Process Discovered TO
Prevent Drying Out in FuTrOw.

State College, Pullman, Wash, Dec.
For the past two years the staff Of
the state college experiment station
has been carrying on an extensive line
Of experimentation to discover a dry
farming" method, through which the
crop yield of the so-called dry Sec
tions" of the state and northwest
could be increased. The work has
been under the personal supervision
of Professor George Severance, for
merly agronomist of the station, and
recently made head of the department
of agriculture. Final results from the
experiments have not been compiled,
but 1t is known that the method Of
farming semi-arid soils advocated by
Professor Severance will in all cases
improve the quality Of the cereals
grown, and there is good reason for
believing that the acreage yield will
be increased.
1--WE know that superior quality
of grain can be grown under the
methods OF scientific tillage for the
dry sections" says Professor Sever
ance. During the past season we
have tried both methods in fields side
by side, and the results prove this.
"In working out a system of tlllage
for very dry wheat field, the station
recognizes that the vital problem is to
catch and hold as perfectly as pos
sible the rainfall OF two years for the
growth of one crop. Farmers should
plan to do this. They will profit by so
doing.
Summer Fallowlng Necessary.
'In this system summer following
becomes necessary on account of the
extreme dryness of the climate. The
methods we advocate are as follows:
Land that IS summer fallowed
should be dlsced as soon as spring has
opened, in order to form a mulch of
loose. dry earth on the surface to
precent the rise and escape Of the
moisture from below. This discing al
so helps to induce the termination of
weed seeds. so that they will be de-
stroyed when the playing is done la
ter.
"As soon as the spring work Isl
done. this disced land should be plow-
ed as rapidly as possible. Then in
stead Of leaving the plowed land un-
touched. as is frequently the case a
(CampbelD sub-surface packer, which
consists of skeleton wheels that sink
into the furrow, is made to follow the
plow as closely as possible.
Process Prevents Drying.
"This packing process prevents the
drying out of the furrow, and at the
same time the form of the tool is !
such that the surface OF the soil Is left
almost untouched, thus avoiding the
condition that is raised against most
tools: that they fine the !
soil. and encourage drifting.
cultivation throughout the sum-
mer must be sufficient to keep the
weeds down, and should be done with
some knife type OF cutivator. The
reason for using this type OF culti-
vator. The reason for using this type
of cultivator is to keep the weeds
cut off with the least
amount of working over of the loose
mulch on the surface. If sufficient
cultivation is given with spike-tooth
harrw. or a point shovel cultivator to
keep the weeds down, the surface is
made so fine that it will drift badly,
and is likely to run together and pud-
die or bake.
The vital points are the early disc
ing and use of the sub-surface pack
er Immediately after the use of the
pow. and tool that does the minimum
of pulverizing at the surface"