Weekly journal-miner., 1910-11-23
YAVAPA| SOIL IS IDEAL FOR DRY
 FARMING
(From Saturdays Daily)


 In the Dry Farming Congress Bull letin just received appears a ques- ton from a party in this city, sign ing himself "L. O. IT," answered by R. s. Trumbull, agricultural agent for the Fl Paso & Southwestern rail way. The question and answer are as follows:
 Question.
 Would you consider a black loam, in which there are patches of sandy loam, four and one-balf to five feet in depth, underlaid with a very coarse gravel, sand and little clay, satisfactory for dry farming purposes in Arizona9-L. o. T., Prescott, Ariz.
 Answer.
 I cannot agree that a sandy sub soil need necessarily be summed in the Southwest. In fact, think a sub-soil with a liberal amount of fine sand is better than a typical clay. I obtained a yield of 27.45 bushels of winter wheat this year, on a test place, near Corona, a point about 200 miles north of Fl Paso, on light sandy loam, which was snm- mer fallowed last year. This was the only field of wheat I know of between Tucumcari and Fl Paso, sown on summer fallowed land, and it was also the only piece that was not a total failure. There was but very little precipitation at Corona between seeding and harvest, and this crop was produced almost entire ly with the capillary moisture pres ent in the soil at seeding time. This soil was moist to a depth of ten feet or more over most of the field at seeding time, and at harvest it had been reduced to a pOwdery con dition to a depth of about eight feet.
 With an average precipitation of seventeen inches and the benefit of considerable drainage water from the hilly section, am inclined to think such land could be quite proftably dry farmed with a crop every year. If possible, give the land a long enough period of cultivation before seeding to moisten it to the entire depth of the soil. Use crops best adapted to the climatic conditions and plant thin. This soil can be moistened down te the gravel bot tom and at the same time not have a tendency to drain the storage water down and out through the gravel.
 The water stored in the soil by dry farming practices is held against gravitatiOn not necessarily by an i'm pervious stratum below but by eap- Hilary attraction of the soil particles. A coarse gravel possesses very little capillary power and therefore would exert practically no downward pull on the capillary moisture above. If, however, the soil above the gravel contains more moisture than could be held by eapillarity the excess would drain out through the gravel. This condition should be avoided as any such drainage would leach the soil of some of its fertility.
 A clay sub-soil is all right, but I would prefer not to have it nearer to the surface than about eighteen inches. There should be enough soil (above the clay) of an open texture, which would admit of a more rapid water movement, to receive quickly all the water falling in an ordinary shower Black loam and sandy loam are both good types of soil for dry farming in the Southwest, but for the amount of water you have avail able the soil should be quite deep, say seven feet or more, if summer following or summer tilling is to be praeticed.