Bisbee daily review., 1911-07-23
DRY FARMING RULES
Past Two Years in Texas Well
 Adapted as Test.
Greatest Trouble Seems Co Be That Wind Blows In sprIns-Eaeh Lo- esilty Must, to Large Extent,
 Work Out Own Problems.


 We can better understand the prin- ciples of dry farming. if we consider that the soil is a huge sponge. It takes in water in proportion to its looseness and water is eyaporated from it in the same way. A we'll plowed field takes up great deal more water than a pasture. if the rain is of short duration. But the grass roots will hold water longer than the plowed field. unless the fad has been treated properly. A sponge, soaked in water and hung in the open air, will dry out very quickly. but if a newspaper is tied round the sponge the water in the sponge will remain there a long time.
 The underlying principle of dry farming is to put something over the land which will act as the newspaper does around the sponge. and still not interfere with the growing crops. IL has been found that a shallow coat of finely pulverized, dry soil will do the same work as the newspaper does. That is why one of the cardinal prin- ciples of dry farming Is cultivate constantly" Another principle is ''plow deep before the rains come. % The reason is easy to see. Deep blow ing loosens the tight soil and allows it to soak up more water.
 The past two years in Texas have been well adapted to testing dry farm fuO y7naf4Tcdu T.sf ,..fus1- F-- d.. stance, We had good rains and they continued in many sections well up into the spring. But the summer was dry and hot. On land that had been prepared by deep blowing for the win ter rains, the moisture soaked in deep. and when that land was fur ther protected by constant cultiva- tion and the keeping of dry blanket of fine dirt over it, crops sent their roots down into the moist soil under heath and produced yields in spite of the lack of rain.
 No hard and fast rules can be laid down for dry farnssag. any more than rules can be laid down which will ap- ply to any other kind of farming for all localities.
 Writing to the Dry Farming Bulle- tin. finders L. Mordt of Guymoh. Okla, illustrates this as follows:
 There Is a Norwegian colony in Hanford county. Texas, brought in from the best settlements of the north and northwest. These men have adopt ed the dry farming methods as the only way to farm in this country, and they intend to keep this up regardless of rainy or droughty years. As a re- suit, if they have a rainy year, they can store away enough moisture to raise a crop that year and leave enough to supply a second year when they add the ordinary rainfall to the supply that they have stored away. The greatest trouble seems to be due to the fact that the wind blows in the spring. The farmers have learned that they cannot afford to work the dust blanket too fine as the wind in the spring season will carry inches of dirt away from one field over on another. If they leave the field too lumpy thera will be too many cracks and the evap- oration will be too large. We must find middle way. There is also a doubt as to whether or not deep blow ing Is a good thing Some state that five inches is all anyone must plov at any time. while others claim that eight, ten and twelve inch blowing Is not too much We are as yet in the experimental stage, and 1t win take some time before we can do very much in laying down rules for farming.
 Each locality must. to a large extent, solve its own dry farming problems. but when we know that dry farming produces crops alongside fields that are barren when cultivated by other methods, we ought to be wiling to make the necessary experiments in order to find out the best principles