Bisbee daily review., 1908-01-25

The Tucson Star publishes the fol lowing article from Prof. R. H. Forbes. director of agricultural sta tions connected with the territorial university. The article is on the subject of Dry Farming" and we re
 produce it in full:
 Success in dry farming in the
 semi-arid west, concerning which so
 much is now being said anl written,
 depends upon sevral different factors,
 Among the requirements, are suffi- cient and timely rainfall, a suitable
 and water-retentive soil, methods of cultivation which, so far as possible l shall aid the soil to store up the l rainfall and prevent its evaporation, and quick-growing or misunderstanding crop plants suitable to the region.
 Tn eastern Washington and in DOT tions of Utah, Colorado, Wyoming.
 western Kansas and Nebraska, and New Mexico. where dry farming Is to
 some extent now successfully prac- tced, the rainfall is very largely in the form of snow, which falling upon properly prepared soil and melting gradually in the spring. sinks entire ly into the ground and there becomes | available to growing crops. The seils of these regions. especially the vol canic ashes of eastern Washington, are of an unusually water-retentive character. Practically the whole of the rainfall, amounting from 10 to 25 inches, sinks into these soils with very little runoff or erosion. With the aid of cultivation, therefore, and what is known as subsurface pack ing which creates a denser and more
 water-retentive layer some inches be low the surface, and by the mainte- nance of loose surface layer which restricts evaporation, this rainfall may to an unusual degree be retained and utilized Within recent years, also. certain crops having small wat CT requirements, macaroni wheat in particular, have been introduced in this region.
 With reference to dry farming Ari- zona is divided into two very distinct portions, the higher northeastern di- agonal half of the territory and the low-lying southwestern valleys. The northeastern portion of the territory has considerable resemblance to the dry farming sections of Colorado and Utah. and this form of agriculture will undoubtedly be developed in this section in the near future. Indeed, oats, barley and wheat have already been very successfully grown on or dinary rainfall.
 But in the low-lying southwestern valleys the conditions are in every way seyerer than in typical dry farm ing country. The rainfall is less and more uncertain, the evaporation is greater, the soil is not of the peculiar Water-retaining character most rav- Orable- to dry-farming. and the richer irrigated valleys as yet offer better opportunities to the farmer.
 Occasionally rainy seasons occur as in 1905 when barley could have been grown ' almost anywhere in southern Arizona without Irrigation; i; but these rainy seasons are even rarer than in the San Joaquin valley, where fortunes in wheat have been made by a lucky guess on the sea- son, and then as likely as not lost in attempts to repeat the perform ance.
 Even under these less favorable conditions, however, certain results are possible, just as many centuries ago was proven in equally arid north ern Africa. The hilly slopes near an- cient Carthage, for instance. were
 covered with vines and olive trees
 which were planted in the points of Y-shaped entertainments placed with l the open side of the V uphill to catch and concentrate the scanty rainfall
 in the soil at the point of the V in
 which the tree was situated. Although climatic conditions are essentially
 the same now as then, the careful
 gardners of that day are no more, | their entertainments have been brok-