El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1911-10-20
FARMING
CANADA GETS NEXT meeting OF THE
INTERNATIONAL DRY FARM CONGRESS

the Kansas Agricultural college. pre-
sented tle report Of the committee on
drOuth resistant crops. Up to date,
said the speaker, our endeavOr has
oeen primarily to discover hardy strains
and multiply them as rapidly as posi-
bic for general distribution. In the fu-
ture we should actually make new
types Of plants fitted to live and pro
duce profitable Yields with certainty
over the dry farming area" The com
mittee found that in the Great Plains
area, including all that territory in tne
dry districts for the southern pOr-
tion the sorghums, Mexican beans
winter and spring wheat, oats, barley
and alfalfa are best.
EXhaustinE Nitrogen.
Robert Stewart chemist at the Titan
experiment station, presented the report
Of the special committee on nitrates in
dr. land soils lie said that according
to the predictions Of Sir William
CroOke, the known deposits Of nitrates
in the world viii soon be exhausted
AMI the world viii ole from nitrogen
hunger unless some I-CCns is developed
Tor maintaining the nitrate content or
our agricultural soils. The problem is
Of especial Importance to the dry dis
UrlctS, Stree fertile soil will produce
crops with q smaller amount OF water
tran viii an Unfertuc soil. The com
mittee suggested that the blowing IN
der of all available weeds, volunteer
grain winter rye, StuOble and barnyaTd
manure and other vegetable matter will
be of value for the increase Of humiC
nitrogen in the soil
Mis takes OF Cultivation.
Prof Farrell said that the idea ad-
Fahced by many dry farming authors,
tilat the more cUstlvatiOn the soil is
given the better, frequently leads TO
undesirable extremes In clay OF lava
ash soils a dust mulch quickly runs
together when wet and induces heavy
loss Of the falling rain by runOff 1t
also leads to heavy crUstinE after rains
On neaFy soils, the speaker insisted,
the dust mulch is rot desired, but rath-
er that the surface soil should be kept
relatively coarse and lumpy. He rec
commended the ordinary spike-tOOth
narrow as the best farm implement for
the purpose, even in graduating weeds
II they are attacked just as they begin
TO appear above the ground in great
numDG~s- Muirniug operations should
Dee shallow, ana Should be directed as
much toward absorbing the rainfall as
TO holding IL dfJerWard-
Wheat on Four Inch Rain.
j. N. Bradshaw, a practical COlOra-
do farmer. told how he raised twenty
bushels Of wheat per acre on a four
inch rainfall. In February, 1887" he
said, i filed on a homestead four miles
from EastOnviue Colo. The first year I
raised 1890 pounds of potatoes on
IA acres Of ground, is bushels Of wheat
and 50 bushels of oats per acre Since
then we have made more OF less Of
success by practical dry farming meth
DDS, having been able to grow from
% TO 100 bushels of oats per acre and
from 16 to A bushels of wheat to the
acre. These Figures are the average Of
the entire crop each year
My farm is located on the summit
OF the divide between the Platte and
the Arkansas rivers, 20 miles from and
IUUU teet above any living stream that I
carries water enough 10 irrigate more I
thdn C. few acres We have Just water
enough for domestic purposes. Early in [
March 1910, / thoroughly cultivated {
100 acres OF land with spring tooth !
harrow, there being littIe moisture in
the ground al the tine
HIS Light Rainfall.
On Nay p We had snow that wet [
the ground four or five inches and Z
started the weeds. AS soon as they
began to appear we went over the I
ground with an Acme harrow, which I
thoroughly pulverized the surface and I
destroyed the weeds. We plOWed the /
ground to an average of seven inches I
early in July using a 25 horse power 4
engine and a p disc Emerson pillow, I
narrowing at the same time with an /
Acme harrow attached to the pillow.
on July lS rain wet the ground to /
a depth or TWO and One-half to three (
inches, and in the two weeks following {
July % about five inches Of rain fell. !
We narrowed the ground again with /
the Acme and spring tooth harrOWs. On ]
August 10 one and a half inches Of rain 1
fell, and we narrowed again, this time I
W AL-A 6p4hE LDoLA narrow wheat ]
was SOWn az the rate OF 40 pounds to D
the acre about September I. But little 1
rain fell that fall, and very little snow
last winter, most of the latter blowing
OF There were but two rains during /
the growing season this year, tOtaling !
less than three inches. This with the
snow of last winter, which would not /
make to exceed three-fOurths Of an
len OF water, IS an the moisture We had
from planting time until the wheat was I
harvested on July 16. When the thresh-
ing was done we found we had 2O5O /
bushels from our 100 acres"