The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1909-02-21

WITH many persons tndt tney prefer IL "
irrigation enterprises. They claim 1t is
cheaper than irrigation, and has other
decided advantages over the ditch and
lateral system. They point out that no
bitches need be built, that no repairs
must be made annually, that no labor
ers need be employed as irrigators, and
they make the claim also that dry
farming is much better proposition
than irrigation when conducted on a
large scale. 1t is estimated that one
man cannot farm profitably more than
fifty acres, usually, and seventy five
acres. occasionally, of irrigated land,
while under the dry farming system
large tracts can be easily handled, es-
pecialIy in raising grains or alfalfa. In
connection with this bulletin recently
issued by the State Agricultural college
of Utah is interesting. 1t says:
''The cost of producing a crop OF
wheat, oats or barley, should not ex-
coed 81 per acre. after the land has
once been cropped. When the farmer
uses his own implements and team, the
cost per acre would be: Flowing, COO;
disciug, coo; narrowing and seeding,
40c; harvesting, soc; total of $40.
When the work is let by contract, the
cost would be S4.35 per acre"
But the cost of farming in one section
may differ from that of another. An
expert dry farmer i'm the vicinity of
Denver furnishes the following table:
$40 acres at s. % per acre. i. 4S1
Flowing and seeding. s. per acre.. .2SG
Harvesting at 81 per acre .....-...... So
Threshing at sc per bushel $3.50. LOCO
Hauling to market, &c per bushel.. Soo
Total cost including investment $50
Thirty bushels per acre, 10. 100 BUSH
els. at 81 per cwt. ..................sl1.51 go
Net income first year ..-.-.......-. $50
Some Wonderful Results.
Since the organization of the Trans
Mississippi dry farming congress bull
letins announcing some very gratifying
results have been published. In Ne
braska state yields of wheat, corn and
oats have been increased remarkably
under dry farming projects. A notable
instance was that of a yield of wheat
in Hitchcock county, Nebraska, in a
field cultivated on scientific dry farm
ing principles. of forty-one bushels to
the acre, IN the face of a total failure
OF fully 80 per cent of all wheat sown i'm
that county, because of a drought last
ing seven months and twenty-three
days. A great many instances of this
kind have been made matter of records.
The testing of the dry farming theo-
ries have become general now in almost
all of the western states, and the state
agricultural colleges are foremost in
this work
The best methods are given to the
public frequently in bulletins. After
these prolonged Investigations, a study
of various bulletins showed that the rec
ognized methods to be pursued in dry
farming are contained in the following
sentences taxed from agricultural col
lege bulletins:
THE formation of a deep seed bed to
act as a soil moisture reservoir.
Careful packing of the soil to estab-
fish the contact of soil particles and as
sist in the rise of moisture from the
lower layers.
Constant surface cultivation Of the
soil. when possible. to prevent the es-
cape OF the moisture.
Summer following each alternate
year. and by summer cultivation. sto--
ing the moisture for the succeeding
crop.
Growing hardy strains OF the differ
ent crops, so that the largest posi- Die
percentage of the moisture present will
be utilized.
Growing fall and early ripeuing
strains of spring grain, in order that
growth may be attained during the
growing months. !. e.. April, May. June
and July.
Thin seeding, so that the moisture
may not be wasted in producing numer-
Gus stems. and none be present to ripen
the grain.
Growing inter-tilled crops like corn
and potatoes as the possible constant
cultivation retains the moisture for
growth.
Growing some nitrogen-gathering
crops occasionally to keep UP the sup
ply of this element in the soil"