The Hope pioneer. [volume] (Hope, N.D.) 1882-1964, 1911-06-22
DRY FARM PROBLEM
How to Reduce Water Require
ments of Plants.
Part Of Value Of Summer FaIlow
Comes From Plant Food Made
Available and Not Alone. From
Saving Moisture.
(By w. G.

- .Aa "
One of the limiting factors in crop
production in the dry farming region
is water. How to make it go far as
possible is fully as important as get
ting it into the soil and keeping it
there. DR.. Widtsoe of Utah, prepared
a paper for the Dry Farming congress-,
entitled "How to Reduce the Water
Requirements of Plants" 1t was in
n epoch making. He opened
with the statement that it required
from 800 to 5000 pounds of water
to produce n pound of dry matter.
He quoted the experiment of Pagnoul
of France who found that on poor
soil it required 1,1O9 pounds Of water
to produce n pound of dry matter,
while on fertile soil it required but
504. Experiments In Utah brought
out similar results-for instance, corn
grown on a naturally fertile piece of
land required 908 pounds of water
to produce n pound of dry matter.
When MANFRED it required but 612,
adding some sodium nitrate in addi-
ton to the manure reduced it to 585.
In another experiment corr grown on
sandy loan not cultivated required
COS pounds of water. When cultivat-
ed 1t vas reduced to 252. On clay
loan not cultivated 535 pounds were
required. Cultivating reduced it to
428. On clay soil not cultivated 753
pounds was the requirement-when
cultivated this was reduced to 582.
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 well 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 If thick to
supply a given amount of food. Ma
nuring by putting more plant food in
the soil increases production without
increasing the moisture requirements.
Culttvating by keeping the moisture
from evaporating makes ideal condi-
lions for germs to work on the inert
plant food, making it available and SO
a 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: cat the
present time the only mean pos
sessed by the former for controlling
Transportation and making possible
maximum crops, the minimum amount
of water in a properly titled soil is
to keep the Soil a. fertile as possible.
In the light of this principle the prac-
tice usually recommended for the
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 for the prevention Of the d.
rect evaporation Of water is Of itself
ar effective factor in setting free plant
food and thus in reducing the amount
of water required by plants"
The experiments at the Utah sta.
ton referred to bring out most strik.
ingly the value Of cultivation in re.
ducing Transportation.
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 6h, 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 five per cent.
protein. On the same land manfred,
on. On clover sod MANFRED 1OA, or
in other words two tons Of corn fodder
from a rich soil contained more food
value than three tons from q poor
soil. The plant Is a good deal like
a carpenter; when lumber is cheap he
wastes more. As it 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 it
makes 1t go further and consequently
produces a plant with less food value.
Combining these two results we get
the following: A given amount of
moisture will produce at least 30 per
cent. more crop on rich soils than on
! poor ones. and the crop grown on the