The Beaver herald. [volume] (Beaver, O.T. [Okla.]) 1895-1923, 1912-01-04
DRY LAND EXTREMISTS
Some Unknown Quantity Gov
erns the Returns.
Men Who Spend Much Time In city
Office Not Competent TO Write on
intricate Subject as Those
In Close Contact.


grain on dry land with but fifteen
inches OF rainfall. and then drive for
miles through fields that will not give
back the seed with the same tillage,
and possibly slightly more rainfall,
ought to convince our dry farming en-.
thuslasts that the natural moisture
OF the soil or subsoll, or the moisture
holding capacity OF the soil. or some
other quality seldom evident at first,
largely governs the returns from dry
farming
We have recently come across even
mo'e extreme differences than the
ones noted. We have seen good to
9bundnnt crops on seemingly as dry
iand as could be found--with but little
attention given to dry farming meth
ods: while not far from II almost to-
tai failure wsere every mechanical de
tail OF dry farming had been carefully
carried out, says the Dakota Farmer
These things convince us more than
ever that men who spend most OF
their time IN n city ofiice--or who
Walt but one or two strips Of country
this intricate subject as are some of
those whose every working hour
brings them In close contact with the
soil and possibly with the mortgage.
All too many jump at conclusions
which everyday facts viii not Justify.
and make assertions altogether too
geneJal. and that are not only mis-.
'e9(ing. but that we know are not
tY6e. IS.
We are glad to note that there is IA
more frank admitting. by very many
OF these teachers ana eXperimenters
that Il takes a certain amount of
moisture in all soils to grow crop
and that moisture has to come frc-"
the heavens, from the subsoil or be
conserved by accumulation, ard that
moisture cannot be created Who're Il
does not exist.
They must admi. too. that there are
soils and much OF them. that viii
never make anything but very uncer.
tain returns where there are but M
teen inches OF rainfall, II is easy to
make glowing assertions. that are true
enough with many soils and subsoils.
but to get onto n dry. hard.beked
prairie. with an almost impervlous
subsoll-unless II does hold that pecu-
liar quality which responds so quickly
to culture--snd make II produce at al
worth while. is quite another thing
There Is much dry soil which Will
never do H. unless with an expendl
ture OF time tillage, horee flesh and
Cetience not one man In hundred
possesses. and then in many. many in
stances It will not.
We know II Is much easier. and
very much more popular. TO Join with
the extremists In this thing, point TO
the almost NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. In.
uivldual successes and shut our eyes
to the discouraged, misled and posi-
bly, ruined, and assert that this. that
and the other system will wiring enor.
nous and certain yields from any and
NIL dry or desert lands; but we know
thore Is another and larger side to II
hill and our sympathies go out to the
man who must experiment long and
patiently at his own expense before
he knows whether his land win re
spond TO dry farming methods or not
whether yields sufficient will come tc
him or his own particular piece oI
dry land to pay for every other year
tIllage. and the extra labor aud ex
pense he must go to before he car
hope to equal ordinary farm land re
turns
In the grea; Golden Valley. stretch
ing north and south Of Beach and WI
baux on the North Dakota and Mon
tana line we are 'old that the yieldi
COMPARE favoraby with those Of IN,
Red River Valley This we know {,
be true, at least for some seasons fo
we have rode over both valleys from
end to end more than once: but dr.
farming is not practiced by one farm
or in a hundred in Golden Valley
"But Judith Basin" we are asked
doesn't that yle'd?" True but on,
can ride for mics there without find
eng "a man who even knows what DIR!
farming means, much less practices II
Those sections have soil peculla
10 themselves. and when combine,
with slightly greater, and usual,
more seasonabe rainfall than IN
country on either side OF them. hav
brought forth excellent crops with m
most inexcusably haphazard farmln
we ever saw II is distinctly dishor
est to roint TO these sections, or 9th
ers Ike them as proofs of what dr.
farming will do
We take second place with no MAJ
FOR the high regard in which we hol
dry farming and most dry farmin
teachers; but do say that the sweeI
ing assertions made by many VIII
from actual and wide experience an
observation, are not competent 4
write or SPEAK on the subject at al
is dangerously and wrong'uly mi.
leading, and is doing as much TO hir
der the cause OF dry farming as Al
the blundering Of the beginners.