The river press. [volume] (Fort Benton, Mont.) 1880-current, 1909-04-28
EXPLAINS DRY

The general principles Of DRY
farming. which appear to be misunder
stood by many who have no
given careful attention to the subject
are described in q statement recently
made by Professor F. S. Cooley, oil
the agricultural college at Bozeman
Professor Cooley Gays that in Mon
tana probably about 20, O00,0 600 acres
OF arabic observation-disclosures of the
total farming area-will have to be
handled by some system of dry farm
ing. The irrigated area, though i'm.
portant, will be q small fraction of the
total.
Dry farming does not mean farming
without water. Water is absolutely
necessary to agriculture, being one of
the essentials of life itself. Dry farm
ing means suchuse of the natural water
supply as to secure the best results.
1t means the conservation of moisture
and the prevention of waste by
evaporation or useless vegetation. It
ven means the accumulation OF the
rainfall of two for q single
crop.
The first requisite to successful mois.
ture conservation is superior tillage.
After the ground has been we'll plowed
and pulverized, harrow shortly after
each rain and whenever the crust be-
gins to form, thus making a soil mulch
two or three inches deep on the sur
face, which allows rain to go down,
but prevents the capillary water in
the soil from reaching the surface and
evaporating.
BY thorough summer tillage, it has
been found possible to store eight to
ten inches of water in the soil in one
season for the next seasons crop.
Eight to ten inches more water will be
found in four feet of ground after be-.
ing summer titled one season, than in
four feet of ground adjoining untitled.
This lei a difference of fifteen to
twenty-five bushels of wheat to the
acre.
Narrowing grain 10 the spring until
it is six or eight inches high also helps
to save moisture and increase the
crop. Alfalfa ground should be we'll
stirred every spring.
Early maturing crops, such as white
hulless barley, ~sixty.day oats and
Macaroni wheats are safer for dry
lands than the later maturing varie-
ties.
Light seeding has been found to give
the best results on dry lands. Heavy
seeding tends to increase the growth
OF straw and is prodigal of moisture
early in the season,lso that there is in.
sufficient to fill out the grain, and the
berry is less plump and the heads are
lighter.
Two or three pecks of plump seed
carefully selected, sown in properly
prepared soil, with a press drill, will
give much larger yields than four to
six pecks of good seed sown in the or,
binary way.
lntertllled crops, III corn, beans,
potatoes and garden crops, ect., per-
NIT Of moisture conservation during
growth and have proved very success.
full on the dry farm.
A rotation is desirable to give varie-
ty of employment and product and
prevents the rapid depletion of soil
fertility, such as always follows con.
tinuous grain growing. Soil fertility
may be maintained without expensive
fertilizers by judicious rotation, using
a reasonable proportion of the soil
enriching crops, such as alfalfa, peas,
beans, clover, etc. Feed as much as
possible on the farm. Do not pay
heavy trans portation charges on hay
and such crops of low value, but ex-
port the higher priced commodities.