The Spanish Fork press. [volume] (Spanish Fork, Utah) 1902-current, 1910-01-13
FRUIT AND ALFALFA
Among Easiest Crops to Raise
on Dry Land, Says Expert.
We'll Known Western HorticuIturlst
Gives Reasons for Stating They
Can Easily Be Raised in
an Arid Country.

At the recent Dry Farm congress,
held at Billings, Mont, Mr.. e. r. Par
fsons, a well known Colorado horticult-
nrist, who has made dry farming a
CLOSE study and has been quite sue
ycessful, gave an interesting talk.
fAmong other things he said:
ca 1T may surprise some of you to
know that If any man were to ask
me what ] considered the easiest
crops to raise on the dry farm, my
answer would be fruit and alfalfa.
Trees and alfalfa are both deep
. Footed, and this is half the battle in
\ lighting drought. On my ranch we
( pillow from ten to twelve inches for all
our crops, in order that their roots
may get down as deep as possible in
the shortest possible time.
Il 1--WE first secure the moisture for
fruit trees by blowing year ahead
of time and digging holes In the fall
before planting and with two or
three feet of moisture in the ground
we do not care whether a dry year
comes or not. At the last congress
~xplained how to handle an orchard
SO that no loss could possibly result
from drought, and | wish | could say
the same of winter-killing, but though
we cannot actually prevent this, we
can almost eliminate it by careful
choice of tested varieties. In differ
ent parts of the world, even in des-
erts. we find trees growing some
Hines where nothing else will grow.
I'm the dry orchard the farmer can
give his tree almost as much water
as the irrigator, if he wants to. 1t is
simply a question of area, the greater
the area the larger the supply of mois-
ture and the roots will penetrate al
most any distance to obtain this mois-
ture and in a very short space of time.
"When the trees are young it is i'm
possible for them to use up all this
moisture and the surplus is stored in
the subsoil for future use, and when
we have our trees standing in Is feet
of damp soil, as is actually the case
In my dry orchard at the present
moment, we care little or nothing for
dry years.
"The trees in the dry orchard sell
dom winter-kill. because they do not
Become too sappy. You can not fill
an iron or any other pipe with water
and expect it not to burst when the
frost comes so with trees. Thou
sands of trees are killed in the west
every year by late irrigating, and |
I want to tell you that in the deadly
4 winter of '9S and $50, when thousands
\ of apple trees were lost in the irrigat-
4 ed ranches, we did not lose one. Now,
IF 1t were not for the warm spells,
which cause the sap to rise, this would
4 not happen; in Canada, for instance.
lit does not matter how wet the trees
s. become. The south side of the tree
N suffers the most because It is the
warm side.
Some of our agriculturists and ex-
perimenters tell you not to plant al
falfa on sod they know too well how
sod is usually plowed in this country
three or four inches deep-like rib
bons spread out to dry.
"But you can raise alfalfa on sod,
and on sandy land will do better than
any other way. We never wait for
sod to rot, we rot it with the disc
We start in the first wet day and disc
it and cross-disc it, cutting it all to
pieces as deep as the disc will go,
4 then we pillow it eight inches, turning
1t completely over and disc it the 9TH
er side; then work 1t as fine as old
land before planting. Fall blowing
and spring planting are best and the
seed should be put in during the wet
test period of the year, about half an
inch to an inch deep. There is always
certain risk of sprouting and dry
Ing out before the next rain comes
when small seeds are planted during
the heat of summer. The press drill
4 is much better for this work than the
disc drills. l am not much in favor
of rolling or packing except for seed
termination, my experience being that
the first good storm will pack your
land and settle it more than you
could do it in a weeks work.
This crop is of vital Importance to
the diversified farmer for with the
same amount of work he can raise
twice as much feed as is possible
with any other crop"