The Ward County independent. [volume] (Minot, Ward County, N.D.) 1902-1965, 1911-08-03
DRY FARM PROBLEM
How to Reduce Water Require.
ments of Plants.
Part Of Value Of Summer PalIow
Comes From Plant Food Made
Available and Not Alone From
Saving Moisture.
(By w. G. PALMER.)

(By w. G. PALMER)
One OF the limiting factors In crop
production in the dry farming region
Is water. How to make It 20 far as
possible is fully as important as get
ting 1T into the soil and keeping it
there: Pr. Widtsoe Of Utah, prepared
paper for the Dry Farming congress,
entitled How to Reduce the Water
Requirements of Plants" 1t was in
one sense epoch making. He opened
with the statement that 1t required
from 300 to 5000 pounds OF water
to produce one pound of dry matter.
He quoted the experiment of PagnouI
of France who found that on poor
soil it required 1,109 pounds Of water
to produce one pound of dry matter,
while on fertile soil it required but
504. Experiments in Utah brought
out similar results-fOr instance, corn
grown on naturally fertile piece of
land required 908 pounds of water
to produce one pound of dry matter.
When MANFRED it required but 612,
adding some sodium nitrate In addi-
tion to the manure reduced 1t to 5S5.
! In another experiment corn grown on
| sandy loan not cultivated required
603 pounds of water. When cultivat.
ed 1t was reduced to 252. On clay
loan not cultivated 535 pounds were
required. Cultivating reduced it to
pounds was the requirement-when
cultivated this was reduced to 5S2.
The significance of these figures is
not easy to estimate. In most sec
| tons even in humid and irrigated
| ones, but especially in the dry farm
ing regions water is the limiting fac
tor in crop production. BY having
the soil we'll provided with available
plant food the plant can make more
growth with a given amount of water
Just as one would have to eat more
soup If it were thin than II thick to
| supply given amount of food. Ma
nuring by putting more plant food in
the soil increases production without
increasing the moisture requirements
Cultivating by keeping the moisture
from evaporating makes ideal condi-
| tons for germs to work on the inert
plant food, making it available and SO
| larger plant growth. Part of the
value of the summer fallow comes
from the plant food made available
and not alone from saving up mois-
| ture.
He sums up as follows: AT the
! present time the only means pos
sessed by the former for controlling
Transportation and making possible
maximum crops, the minimum amount
of water in properly titled 'soil7is
| to keep tho soil asafertile as possible.
! In the light Of this principle the prac-
| tice usually recon amended for tie
storing Of water and for the proven
| ton of the direct evaporation Of wa
ter from the soil are emphasized.
Deep and frequent blowing, prefer
ably in the fall, so that the weather
ing of the winter may be felt to great
depths and strongly, is of the first i'm
portance in liberating plant food
Cultivation which has been recon-
mended tor the prevention OF the di
rect evaporation of water is of itself
an effective factor in setting free plant
food and thus in reducing the amount
| If water required by plants AZ
The experiments at the Utah sta
ton referred to bring out most strik-
ingly the value of cultivation In re
ducing Transportation. III
In this same connection it is inter
esting to bring up the results OF exper.
iments conducted by Prof Snyder
of Minnesota He found, for instance
that timothy grown on poor land had
a protein contest of 67i, while that
| grown on good land contained 8&. In
other words, on the rich soil the plant
put SO per cent. more food value in
to the crop. In another experiment
| he found that corn fodder grown on
poor land contained 6-3 Ave per cent.
protein. On the same land manured
914 On clover sod MANFRED ION, or
| in other words two tons of corn fodder
from q rich soil contained more food
value than three tons from a poor
soil. The plant Is good deal like
a carpenter; when lumber Is cheap he
wastes more. As 1t gets expensive or
hard to get he uses 1t more economi-
cally. The same way with the plant
las it finds the food hard to get IL
makes 1t go further and consequently
produces plant with less food value.
| Combining these two results we get
the following: A given amount Of
moisture will produce at least 80 per
cent. more crop on rich soils than on
poor ones, and the crop grown on the
rich soil will contain at least 45 per
cent more food value than that grown
on the poor, one. In other words the
moisture that would produce 100
pounds Of crop on poor soil would
produce at least 100 pounds on rich
soil and the crop raised on the rich
soil would contain on an ayerase,
IS per cent. more protein which would
still further increase the food value
of the crop grown on the rich soil to
the equivalent Of 1873 pounds grown
on the poor soil; almost twice as