The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1910-04-09
DRY FARMING
IN HUNGARY

the frozen soil and almost all the mois-
ture runs off in the creeks and rivers
and is lost so far as benefit to crops is
concerned The consequence is a dry
a snowless winter, there come the
rains in March and April, concentrated
in such superfluous manner that the
moisture has not time to penetrate the
heavy, clayey soils and again runs off.
But then we are glad to see it run off,
because it would delay our spring
blowing and seeding and cause our
winter wheat to suffer from being too
wet 1t happened in my own experience
estates of Hungary, covering 10000
acres, We were hardly able to seed 1000
acres in spring grain, instead of the
usual 5000 acrose, and 1 was forced to
plant my sugar beets as late as June
&c. instead of the end of March, on ac-
count of the continuous rains. Such
rainy period does not prevent the poor
er winter wheats from suffering, or
even destruction, from drouth, as the
soil becomes packed too hard, and by
uEdisturbed capillary action the mois-
ture rapidly escapes as soon as the
warm, dry weather sets in. If the next
year is a dry one, the fall, winter and
spring poor in moisture, at the end of
May our winter wheat VIII not be more
than six inches high and failure Will
ensue Even if winter and spring bring
their normal share Of moisture, owing
to lack of a properly executed method
beet fields become dry and we must
wait anxiously for beneficial rain in
! July. However, we never can be sure
| of not getting too much, so that it will
cause our wheat and oats to sprout in
the shocks and stacks.
| These, however, are not the rule, they
are examples to show that we have to
contend with both superfiuous
moisture and destroying drouth So,
our farming methods ara developed to
! Annual Cropping.
We crop the fields every year. Some
40 years ago it was the practice to
crop two years and let the field rest, as
summer fallow. the third year in or
6nYs 70 f1x- ., i LII,
moisture conservation. This was called
the full, or black summer fallow To-
day, this method is almost wholly abol-
ished and partly substituted by another.'
called green summer fallow, which con-
sists of growing early forage crops.
such as rye, winter peas, oats and a
vetth sown in the fall or in the early
spring upon the land to be fallowed,
and cut for hay in May or early IN
the land all the summer, preparing it
for winter wheat. This is done about
every four or six years
The principal part of our rainfall
comes in the winter and our princ-
pal care is taken to save the winter
moisture We do this by fall blowing,
leaving the ground rough to catch and
hold the snow and to prevent the water
running off when the snow melts. We
do as much fall blowing as possible
Experience has taught us that on the
same soil, under the same conditions, a
crop planted on fall blowing yields Of
ten so to 100 per cent higher than the
same crop planted on spring blowing
And as our spring is usually so brief
and the farm work accumulated so
heavily at that time of year, every
furrow made ready in the fall is net
gain to the farmer in the spring
TilIage.
We also like to. avoid spring blowing
as much as possible in order to avoid
turning over our soil and exposing it to
the air, which rapidly takes the moist
ure. So in order to loosen and level
the surface of fall plowed land in the
spring. We use heavy harrows, cutting
into the soil to a depth of three inches;
or we use some special tools, such as
the grubber. consisting principally of
sets of chisels which destroys the