The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1910-07-16
DRY FARMING DISCUSSED
BY PRESIDENT WORST
Head Of the North Dakota A. c. Gives Conclusions Drawn
From the Present Dry Seasons and the Results
Throughout the State

DRY farming contrasts with irriga-
ton farming" said President Worst
today. THE former Is the antithesis
of the latter. 1t is no disgrace to be
a dry farmer and no country is sland-
cred by being known as a dry farming
country. The only question is, will
the practice known as dry farming
produce profitable crops, as a general
proposition. OF course drought may
occur in almost any community of
such severity and duration as to de-
stroy crops utterly.
mo agricultural community Is who'll
ly exempt from an occasional yisita-
tion of this character. Moreover too
much precipitation will produce
equally disastrous results. Some sec
tons Of the country are subject to oc-
casional droughts, not always because
there is insufficient precipitation. but
because the farmers do not practice
dry farming methods; that is they do
not through proper methods of cul-
tivation conserve the moisture in such
form that it is available when the
growing crop needs it,
illustrates the possibility of moisture
conservation. In every farming com
munity there were fields of grain that
withered early In the season. The
growing crop could not Withstand the
drought strain beyond few days. Ad-
jacent to the same fields were crops
that stood the drought much longer
before showing signs of distress, but
finally they, too, succumbed.
There are few farmers, however.
where the crops have stood up brave
ly through all the stress of drought
and hot winds and will make a fairly
good crop in spite of the adverse, con-
ditions of this most unusual year And
yet even the best fields were not farm
ed strictly according to- dry farming
methods; the farming was simply
fairly well done. The fields that with
cred early as a rule were either plow-
ed shallow, or out Of season, or were
not thoroughly dragged, or were weedy
or were afflicted by all these evidences
Of poor husbandry.
Crop Failure Unnecessary.
Admitting that there may be sea-
sons when all crops will fail for lack
of moisture, yet after an experience
of twenty-six years in this state I am
fairly convinced that with the prac-
tice of dry farming methods, with one
or two exceptions, there need not have
been serious failure of crops in any
section of the state during all that
period. 1t is equally true that one or
two exceptions must be made for any
other section Of equal area in any 9TH
er part of the United States. The
Red river valley has during recent
years suffered far more from too much
water than the western part of the
state has suffered from too little. Both
can be remidied by means of the ditch
and the drag.
Early in the season cautioned all
farmers to drag all land seeded to
grain once or twice oftener than usual
believe yet that it would have paid
the grain farmers of the state. to have
put out 20 per cent less acreage and
given that acreage the cultivation that
was given to the total acreage that
was seeded.
DRY farming does not mean sum.
mer following half the land each year
except where the annual precipita.
ton is less than, say, IL inches. This
does not apply to our state except,
perhaps, very rarely upon limited
areas Dry farming means such Gull
tivation and types of grain as are
adapted to the average moisture pre-
cipitation whether it be 8. IL. 20 or 40
inches. 1t means deep blowing, thor
ough cultivation, blowing at the right
time, drought resistant cereals and
grasses, plenty of livestock to con-
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