The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1910-04-26
TO PREVENT DIS
ASTROUS FLOODS

SOIL IN the Sem1-ar1d belt of the west
ern part of the United States by mod
ern methods of tillage will avert the
disastrous spring floods in the Miss
issippi valley.
This theory is advanced by Profes.
sor A. E. Chamberlain, superintendent,
of Farmers Institutes in South Da.
kota, who makes the following state.
ment in the current issue of the Dry
Farming Congress Bulletin, publisher
in Spokane:
If every acre of land west of the
Missouri river were in good state OF
cultivatetion and plowed to a depth of
not less than 10 inches at least every
alternate year, the torrents in the riv-
ers leading from the mountains to the
Mississippi river would be unheard
off,
The Missouri, Mississippi, Platte.
Republican and Arkansas rivers and a
hundred other less important streams
at least once year gather the tor,
rents that pour down the mountain
gorges and surge through the coulees
and arroyos of the high western plains,
and swollen with the melting SHOWS
and spring rains these streams hurl
floods through the towns and cities In
the Mississippi and tributary valleys,
driving men, women and children from
their homes and leaving destruction,
desolation and disease in their wake.
The statement that most Of these
floods are caused by the melting SHOWS
on the mountains is generally accepted,
yet it is fact that snow is only one
of the contributary factors. Little or
NO consideration has been given to the
rainfall in that vast stretch of terri
tory west of the 98th meridian. the
common belief being that the area
once known as ''the Great American
DESERT do senot receive sufficient rain
to make an appreciable variation in
the volume of water carried by the
streams in the Mississippi valley.
That this view is erroneous is prov
ed by computation of the volume Of
water in an annual rainfall of 10
inches. One inch of rain on an acre
of ground represents 226SS pounds or
q, ,115 gallons while a 10-inch rainfall
means that the same area has received
271 loo gallons.
The average annual rainfall in the
so-called dry belt ranges from six to
more than 20 inches, the precipitation
varying according to locality. There
fore a 10-ineh annual rainfall, which is
a low estimate for the EN-
tire region embraced in the territory
between the 9Sth meridian and the
continental divide in the Rocky
embracing an area of about
00,000,000 acres, would give a precipf-
tatio of 1877 7775, ,8S15, 100000 gallons OF
water.
Over the largest portion of this
area, the principal precipitations come
during the winter and spring months.
Much is in the form of snow and lodges
on the mountains or covers the plains
during the winter, but most of the pre-
eipitation is in the form of rains dur
ing March, April, May and June. Thus
the heavier precipitation begins just
before the snow begins to melt, in
creases in volume as the vanishing
drifts pour their millions of gallons In
to the mountain streams and creek
beds on the plains, and attains its
maximum at time to force the az
ready swollen streams over their banks
and cause the annual deluge.
The question that naturally arises
is: How can dry farming or any other
mehtod of cultivation affect the re-
suits of these meteorological phe-
Dry farming is based upon the prin-
ciple of conservation of moisture in the
soil. Farmers in the semi-arid west ac-
complish this by systematic tillage.
Deep plowing, so that the falling mois
ture may penetrate the earth to the
greatest depth, is one of the fundamen-
tai principles of all successful dry
farming systems while systematic cul-
tivation of the surface to maintain a
dust blanket is the supplemental princi-
pie applied to retain the moisture.
That deep plowing and systematic
cultivation will create a soil reservoir
for storing indefinitely the bulk of the
moisture which falls upon the ground
in the form of rain or snow, and that
the conservation of moisture in the soil
by these methods makes agriculture in
the semiarid sections of the west
where the rainfall is extremely limit
ed not only possible but profitable, is
attested by thousands of practical
farmers who have successfully pro.
duced crops by dry farming methods
in districts with limited rainfall during
periods ranging from three to 40
years.
Tests made on virgin soil show that
the normal moisture was perceptible to
no appreciable depth, while in culti-
waited orchards it was found at depths
ranging from Is to 20 feet. Where
deep blowing and systematic cultiva.
tion has not been practieed, the rains
do not penetrate the hard, sod bound
soil, but run off in streams which con.
vert the sand beds of the arroyos into
raging torrents, the snow gathering
during the winter following the same
course when it succumbs to the rays
of the spring sun.
Here, then, is the answer to the
question, how will dry farming affect
the results of the meteorological phe-
nomena which cause the annual floods
in the Mississippi and its tributar,
rivers:
The dry farmer opens the soil so tina;
the moisture which falls upon it will
penetrate the ground, instead of run
ming off in destructive streams. He
holds the moisture in the soil by sys
tematic cultivation. and while this
eventually finds its way to the surface
streams. it is so gradual that the nor
NAL flow of the streams is not affected