The silver messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1890-1912, 1910-10-18

Method TO Become Important
Adjunct to Agriculture.
Possibilities Widening With Each Suo-
cessive Year-Extenslve Expert
ments Constantly In Prog
ress Shed New Light.

That dry farming Is destined 10 Dc
come an important adjunct to Ameri-
can agriculture Is a conclusion no
longer open to serious doubt. says Or
.ange Judd Farmer It's possibilities are
widening with each succeeding year.
and the extensive experiments con-
stantly in progress are shedding new
light upon the whole broad question
Of agriculture
To the average farmer the propo-
sition that moisture can be conserved
In the soil against day Of need for
weeks and months-indeed, carried
over from one season into another.
seems the most absurd folly; yet that
1t can be done has been amply demon
strated and the plan Is In actual OPP
GRAFTON upon hundreds Of farms
throughout the west
Dry farming IL not altogether new
In the United States. The Indians OF
the southwest have raised meager
crops Of beans and maize for centuries
in sections where the rainfall Is al
most nothing. There are many things
to indicate that the prehistoric races
of the southwest were farmers, and
unless great climatic changes have ia
| ken place, they must have raised sup
plies for large populations in land
where the rainfall was very little. Dry
farming has been q feature of agri-
culture in California since the first
settlements. Oats, barley. corn and
many varieties Of fruits and vege-
tables are raised with rainfalls vary
ing from 6 to 20 inches yearly. 1t is
land Of hot. blazing sunshine, yet
evaporation Is arrested and the soil
kept moist and hospitable to the grow
Ing plant
| Perhaps no country in the word
save that OF the actual desert sand
seems less calculated for agriculture
than the wind-swept plains OF New
Mexico and Arizona. How can crops
be raised in that land Of perennial
drought, where the rainfall in many
places, registers less than eight inches
year? Dry farmers say that it car
be done, the secret or system being
merely cultivation. In sections where
the rainfall is least 1t is proposed t.
store and conserve the moisture dur
ing one year for use the next, thu!
only attempting a crop every othel
year.
In those favored localities where tn
rainfall averages Is inches or owe
yearly. a crop each year may be safel.
attempted. The plan Is to grow SOM
quick, summer growing crop, such a
ka1r corn. Egyptian corn. milo maiz
or beans. The planting should b
timed so that the crop Will be in full
growth when the greatest rainfall
expected to occur. AS the rainfall ir
creases. wheat. barley and oats ma
be safely attempted.
But where the rainfall is less tina
Is inches, nothing remains for tn
venturesome husbandman but dr.
farming Of the most intense sort. II
. must look IS months ahead for hi
crop. industriously and constantly pr
pairing, the while. his field for the e,
! pected planting. The blowing shout
take place during the spring or earl
, summer, allowing the ground to II
, fallow throughout the season. AS ia
approaches cultivation must begil
Usually a disk is used to break up tn
: crust and light sod which may hav
formed. Should rains fall during tt
fall and winter. cultivation must &c
, low each. And. In any event. Guilty.
ton at intervals must take place. TT
: soil must be kept loose and not
!. lowed to pack. as that condition is
tai to the storing Of moisture. Guilty.
: ton must continue up to the time
4 planting in April or May.
II the cultivation has been rigid al