The ranch. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1902-1914, 1908-12-15
DRY FARMING.

DRY FARMING.
In our perambulating about the
West it has been our good fortune to
stumble onto some dry farming in
which the results obtained in enor-
nous yields of wheat were almost be-
yond belief We presume that we are
imposing upon the credulity of some of
our readers when we make the state
ment that we saw wheat turning out
as high as sixty-six bushels to the
acre on land that had an annual rain
fall of only fifteen inches. Of course,
this enormous yield was exceptional,
but on making several inquiries we
learned that the average yield was
about thirty-five bushels, which is an
enormous turnout for semi-arid dis
trict.
While we have sometimes been a
little skeptical of the great claims
made for the Campbell System, we
must acknowledge that this bunch of
farmers in Umatilla County, Oregon,
have mastered, or at least are making
a great success of the principles of
conserving the moisture as laid down
by Mr.. Campbell. But one crop is
grown in two years. This is practical
only cereal of any account that is
grown excepting little barley, and
still by this ne-crop-in-two-years sys-
tenn the farmers are employed contin-
uously.
Half of the land is sown, the other
half, which produced the crop that has
just been harvested, is plowed next
summer, and before blowing the stub
BILE is burned off. This to us appeared
like great waste of humus, but their
reason for burning off the stubble is
that when it is turned under it has a
tendency to dry out the ground. The
plows are started as soon as the weeds
begin to sprout. In short time this
is followed with the harrow. The soil
is kept in fine condition during the
summer, well-covered with a fine dust
blanket to hold all the moisture that
may fall.
Conservation of moisture and de-
struction of weeds are the two princi-
pal hobbies of these farmers, and we
can say that in all our travels we have
never found a problem so thoroughly
and unanimously worked out as we
found it in this locality. A twenty
bushel yield would be considered al
most failure. This is one of the
best examples of cOnquering adverse
conditions that has ever come to our
attention. While we would not wish
to be a participant in this wholesale
and exclusive wheat farming, yet we
must acknowledge that these people
are making magnificent success of it.
We quite naturally asked why they
did not raise a. crop every year. Two
reasons for not doing SO were given.
One was that they did not have time
to prepare the land for the fall seed
ing after the previous crop was taken
off and the other that the land needed
this rest every other year to give it a
chance to liberate it's fertility.
No one can question the great sue
cess that these people have achieved,
as there are evidences of prosperity
on every hand and land is selling from
$50 to 500 per acre. In our thousands
of miles of travel in every arid state
in the West we must acknowledge that
these people stand pre-eminent in mas
tering the science of producing enor-
nous crops with little moisture.-The
Farmer.
The Department of Agriculture will
establish an arid farming Experiment
Station in that part of Oregon in the
near future.
r. G.. Hagel, near Lewiston. will