The Leavenworth echo. [volume] (Leavenworth, Wash.) 1904-current, 1910-12-02
DRY FARMING
Transformation of the ''Great American
Desert by Irrigation

During good report and bad, during
political campaigns, and at all other
times, the Secretary OF Agriculture
keeps pretty busy saving wood and
working for the agricultural advance
ment of the country. One Of the
greatest things which the secretary
has done has been the encouragement
OF the farmers in the semi-arid sections
OF the United States where the rainfall
has been accounted insufficient for agri-
culture, but where, with scientific
methods, it has been demonstrated
that good crops can be raised and the
boundaries of the Great American
Desert can be pushed back upon the
map until the alleged desert shrinks up
almost TO nothingness.
The United States Department OF
Agriculture has for several years been
carrying on investigations and accumu-
lating data regarding dry land agricul-
ture in the Great Plains, and in COM
pliance with the urgent demand made
by settlers, actual and prospective, for
information concerning the best meth
DDS for farming in that section, it has
issued two bulletins giving publicity to
such facts and figures as have direct
bearing on the subject, altho it has not
claimed that sufficient data have been
accumulated 10 form a basis for final
conclusions.
The results announced, are, how
ever, of sufficient importance to de-
serve careful consideration, and they
throw strong light upon the contro-
verted questions Of summer tillage,
continuous cropping, and crop rotation,
and show that in addition to actual rain
fall the questions of evaporation and
run-off have much to do with the sue
cessful production OF crops in those
sections. Accurate information regard
ing the precipitation in many sections
Of the United States Weather Bureau;
many of the records are complete for
years, and being of value to the pros
pective settler, have been computed
in rainfall tables and have been included
in the bulletins.
The bulletins treat to a greater or
less degree upon continuous cropping
as compared with alternate cropping
and summer tillage, upon crop rotation
compared with continuous cropping,
and the relative farm value OF crops Of
wheat, oats and barley as produced by
the various rotations and by continuous
cropping. The question as to the rela-
tive merit Of disking the corn stubble
for spring wheat and oats and summer
tillage, and the relative merits of fall
and spring plowing receive considerable
attention and are discussed in one or
the other OF the bulletins in connection
with the distribution OF rainfall, rapidity
OF evaporation, and the amount Of
moisture conserved by the different
processes.
Prospective settlers are apt to give
very little attention to the climate fea-
lures other than the total rainfall. They
do not always assure themselves that
the figures given for particulat region
represent the normal rainfall for single
year. They ignore almost completely
the frequency OF torential rains, the
seasonal distribution OF the rain, the
loss OF water through water run-of, the
occurrence Of hail, and the amount OF
evaporation. These bulletins are in
tended to bring the importance Of such
factors to the attention Of the prospec-
tive settlers in regions Of limited rain
fall. The bulletins also conaain tables
showing the normal rainfall for practi-
cally every station in these regions
where precipitation records are availa-
BILE, the tables being supplemented by
state maps showing at glance the dis
tribution Of the rainfall in the state.