Judith Gap journal. [volume] (Judith Gap, Mont.) 1908-19??, 1909-03-12
The Simple Story Of
Successful Dry Farming
Continued from second page.

harrOws, but are really constructed
on quite different principles.
Now your field is in splendid c0,ltli-
ton to soak up rain; but when the
rain falls, Il crust forms OH the sur
face. Here is danger. The wind will
suck up the moisture, and carry it off
from this crust. So you must harrow
it as soon as possible after every rain.
Whether it has been put in crop or
not, harrow it. If it is fall-plOwed,
and you do not expect to plant it UNI
til spring, nevertheless, harrow it.
Harrow it when the young grain is
coming up; harrow it when it is ankle
high: harrow it after every rain. Not
until the crop has advanced so far
that narrowing will ruin it must the
crust be allowed to remain, and then
only for the briefest possible time.
AS soon as the grain is ripe, cut it,
and plOw at once, pack the subsur-
face, and harrow, harrow, harrow,
until the next crop makes narrowing
impossible. The "tlry farmer is
uneasy every day that the presence of
the crop makes it impossible to break
the surface crust; when his field is
not narrowed his feelings are. For
he knows that the hungry prairie
wind is carrying off tons of water
every day from every acre, and he
needs the water III his business. If
he doesn't need it for this year, he
wants to hold it in reserve for the
next.
Corn is cultivated with two-row
and three-rOw cultivators which lust
move the surface; and | have seen
fields cultivated fifteen times a sea-
son, which made good yields, while
those plowed three or four times only
were burned up by drought alongside
them. ! have seen fields titled by
these methods, in which the soil four
inches from the surface was moist
enough to permit of it's being made
into a ball and thrown, while two
rods away in field titled by ordinary
eastern methods the soil was SO dry
as to be dusty as deep down as l cared
to dig-far below the roots of the
crops.
Where the rainfall is too scanty for
crop every year. the land is sum-
mer-fallowed, and every drop of
moisture which can possibly be re-
tanned is saved by keeping the dust
mulch perfect so as to give next
years crop the rainfall of two years.
Last summer saw at Cheyenne,
Wyoming, a fine field of wheat which
had had only One-eighth of an inch of
moisture from the time it was sOwn
in the fall until the first of June: but
it had the prior years precipitation
trapped in the earth by narrowing
during a season of summer-fallowlng.
Where there is a rainfall of twenty
inches and good soil, crop may be
grown successfully every year. With
eighteen inches, perhaps it is best to
try for only two crops in three years,
and with only fifteen inches, Il crop
every other year may be all that one
can expect. But crops SO grown are
usually excellent, both in quantity
and quality. "Dry- farm" potatoes
bring higher prices in Cheyenne than
irrigated potatoes. being of better
qnality-or so ! was informed.
The writer began the investigation
Of this matter in 1898. and visited
Campbell's model farms in North
Dakota. South Dakota and Nebraska.
year by year. All the statements i'm
this article are made from personal
observation. except where otherwise
indicated
DRY farming" is the most impor-
tam innovation ever introduced in
agricultural practice in this country,
except. perhaps. cotton ginning: for
1t brings into the scope OF profitable
farming an area OF almost incalcul-
able extent, otherwise unavailable
for any such intensive uses. 1t can
be used to economiZe the waters used
for irrigation SO as to double, per-
haps. the area which given flow will
serve. and it will repay the careful
study OF farmers in all places subject
to droughts. even in the humid states.
And yet, "dry farming cannot be
carried on without some moisture.
Some land agents. and some too
hopeful settlers seem to think that
dry farming" is sort OF magic
which will make sand-hills fruitful,
and parched lands green. This is Il
great and miscellaneous mistake. The
man who desires to undertake farm
ing in semi-arid regions, should study
the "dry farming" system carefully,
and should make sure that the lands
bought are really semi-ar.l. and not
totally arid. Otherwise, he will suf-
fer grievons disappointment.- Her