The Ward County independent. [volume] (Minot, Ward County, N.D.) 1902-1965, 1911-03-09
CANPDELl'S MESSAGE
TO THE FARMERS

In his recent lecture in Minot on
dry farming, Mr.. Campbell gave few
interesting figures to show what really
has been accomplished with his sy-
stem.
At Hill City, Neb., back in 1900,
Mr. Campbell was sent for to Line up
an experimental farm according to
his plan. Land there was considered
worth hardly $40 quarter and when
Campbell selected what was consider
ed the very poorest farm in that en-
tire neighborhood for his experiment
farm, the people laughed and thought
he was little off. The farm had
one crop had been taken off.
The spring of 1909 was very dry,
yet they took off from that farm wheat
that averaged AZ IL bushels per acre.
Half of this farm was double disced
after harvest to hold the moisture
and the next year it produced 3S
bushels rar acre. The other half
was SUMMER titled according to the
plan we announced last week, and
this produced so bushels of wheat per
acre. The year following the land
produced AZ 1-2 bushels per are.
These figures seem large and they
are, yet some wonderful results have
been attained by means of Campbells
method. In Hitchcock county, Kan
40 acres averaged Al IL bushels
when 80 per cent of the entire crop
was a total failure.
Campbell gave an excellent illu-
stration of what dry farming will do
for corn growers.
He said: AT Holridge, Nsb., l
met a man Who owned four farms
and he asked me what he should do
to grow 100 acres of good corn. |
told him to go home just as quickly
as possible and first double disc his
ground. The fellow looked at me as
IL W Say lHtil ulO nut huOW NhoI l.
was talking about, and told me that
he would do as said if l would agree
to pay for the extra work in case l
did not get it out of the crop. Ander-
son, however, went home, for that
was his name, and started to double
disc his field for corn. His neigh.
bors drove along the road and thought
he had gone wrong in the head. He
got ashamed Of himself amer he mad
double disced sixty acres and quit.
He wondered if anyone would be able
to detect the difference. That sea
son the ground in the neighobors'
fields was so dry and hard that they
could not work the lister. The forty
acres he did Tot double disc was also
dry. He then saw his woeful mis-
take for the sixty acres he had disced
was mellow and moist. That fall
from the SO acres OF picked "a bushel
OF good corn per acre while his geigh-
bors got about four bushels on the
average, mostly nubbins, He was
able to detect the difference.
Cultivate your crops after a rain
Campbell says crops have been doubl.
ed by cultivating after rain instead
of just before one.
The speaker said that one of the
hardest things for a farmer to deter
mine was the reason why he got a
good crop at times, and the reason
he did not.
Mr.. Campbell emphasized the fact
that the farmers as rule sowed too
much wheat to the acre. Naturally
1t will require little more spring
wheat than fall or winter wheat, but
not so very much. For fall wheat in
Nebraska, he advises sowing only 20
bends t. the acre. He has grown
bu hels of wheat to the acre In this
While by sowing thirty pounds
Sc ne kind OF soil, worked in
J
pl | urged the farmers to fol-
he binders with a disc, and
lel to double disc the land al
Dire ping the bundles over onto
u. disce1 land
Don't let the weeds grow on you,
land at any time. They take GU
the moisture. I" He gave several illu
stration to show what vast differ
ence there is between land that Ii
kept free from weeds and that which
is allowed to grow a rank crop Of
them.
He urged the farmers to keep Their
land covered with two and a hal
inches of dust mulch and when /
begins to show a dry condition o.
top, break up that mulch. Farmer
very often notice cracks in the grount