The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram., 1910-11-10
DRY FARMING HAS
SOLVED PROBLEM
More important Than Irriga-
ton Work, Says Prof.
Shaw, investigator.
GOOD RESULTS FREQUENT
WORTH MUCH TIME AND gNgRov
70 DETERMINE METHOD HOW
TO coMsGRvE SOILS MOISTURE
-OIo QUESTION.

Portland, Oro.s NOV. lO.-Ory taSm-
Inc 10 the greatest problem that CON.
fronts the people Of the west today"
rscsntly declared Prof. Thomas shaw.
who 10 now in central Oregon. investi-
gating conditions relating to that par.
ticular branch Of agriculture. Profess
sor Shaw has been 1t the head OF the
department OF animal husbandry at
the University Of Minnesota since
1899. and 10 the author OF numerous
books on various phases Of scientific
farming. He was one Of the speakers
at the recent dry farming congress at
Spokane. His visit to central Oregon
II looked upon ~ Of much importance
% It II agreed that this method of
farming will be generally followed in
that part Of the state.
I'm comparison with dry farming
the mining industry. important ~ It
10. dwindles into insignihcance." Pro
fsssor Shaw continued. "The problem
Of irrigation 10 great. yet when irri-
cation has done the best It can do.
not more than per cent Of the arid
land In the west can be affected. All
Of the remaining portion. excluding
forest areas, must be made to produce
crops With dry farming methods.
"Conservationists should devote
some Of their time and energy to the
conservations Of moisture In the soil
The value Of the rain that falls during
April May. June and July on the lands
Of the semiArid west, II properly con-
served 10 more than that Of all the
other material interests combined"
Bench Lands Are Best.
Professor shaw said that his expert
ence had shown that good crops Of all
kinds Of grain and some vegetables
can b. obtained on summer fallowed
land. properly prepared. In seasons OF
unusual drought, and that very large
Yields may b grown In . season when
the rainfall II moro than normal. On
account Of the more open character OF
bench lands. such areas have produc.
"a moro heavily than the lands beside
the streams, he said. He referred to
the record Of the bench lands In Mon
tanA, along the Great Northern rail-
way, 20 illustrate this point:
IT 10 hasardous." he continued. In
polnting out the methods Of dry farm
Inc that win not succeed. ito grow .
crop oEGfaln In these bench lands.
when o11 have been plowed in the
sprlAg - the crop sown the same
seasoa. II the season should prove
molst Q good crop may result. but II
Il should prove dry It win assuredly
fAil. and the failure may Be complete.
He said that experiment had taught
him that lands devoted TO cultivated
crop could b followed with . cereal
crop With fair return to the grower.
The peeoess Of cultivation under this
mstho(Ao pointed out. was not far
di9oeoGg esom that employed when cul-
tivat1ng the summer fallow. The DIFF.
ferenco came In the substraction Of
moisture from the soil when growing
the cultivated crop. The question
whether enough moisture would re.
main 10 assure . fair crop has been
broaght up. but Professor shaw said
thst at the experiment stations he had
grown spring wheat Of the durum
vsriety after corn. while beside them
were wheat plats started after the
bare tAllow. In every instance the
wheat was stronger and moro promis-
ing altor the corn than after the bare
falIow. He said that the explanation
OF this apparent phenomenon was diff
ncult but accounted for it In the fact
that the cultivation Of the corn prob
ably stirred the soil moro deeply than
the harrow used In the summer fallow.
thus uberating more soil fertility.