The Oakley herald. [volume] (Oakley, Idaho) 1908-1961, 1912-01-12
DRY LAND EXTREMISTS
Some Unknown Quantity Gov
erns the Returns.
Men Who Spend Much Time In City
ONCE Not Competent to Write on
Intricate Subject as Those
In Close Contact.

| Diam vi uiy lhIu WITH Dut ultoeH
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-
thusiasts that the natural moisture
OF the soil or subsoil, 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
more extreme differences than the
ones noted. We have seen good to
abundant crops on seemingly as dry
land as could be found-with but little
attention given to dry farming meth
DDS; while not far from 1t almost to-
tai failure where 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 a city ofice-or who
visit but one or two strips of country
are not 80 competent to write upon
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 will not justify,
and make assertions altogether too
general, and that are not only mis-
leading. but that we know are not
true.
We are glad to note that there IL a
more frank admitting. by very many
OF these teachers and experimenters.
that 1t takes a certain amount of
moisture In all soils to grow a crop
and that moisture has to come from
the heavens from the subsoil or be
conserved by accumulation, and that
moisture cannot be created where 1t
does not exist
They must admit, too, that there are
soils and much of them, that will
never make anything but very uncer-
tain returns where there are but f1f-
teen inches Of rainfall. 1t is easy to
make glowing assertions, that are true
enough with many soils and subsoils,
but to get onto a dry, hard-baked
prairie, with an almost impervious
subsoil-unless it does hold that pecu-
liar quality which responds SO quickly
to culture-and make 1t produce at all
worth while, is quite another thing
There Is much dry soil which will
never do 1t, unless with an expendi-
ture Of time, tillage, horse flesh and
patience not one man In a hundred
possesses and then In many, many In
stances 1t will not.
We know 1t is much easier, and
very much more popular, to join with
the extremists in this thing, point to
the almost NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. in
dividual 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
all dry or desert lands; but we know
there is another and larger side to 1t
all. and our sympathies go out to the
man who must experiment long and
| patiently at his own expense before
he knows whether his land will re-
spond to dry farming methods or not
whether yields sufficient will come to
him on his cwn particular piece of
dry land to pay for every other year
tillage. and the extra labor and ex-
pense he must go to before he can
hope to equal ordinary farm land re-
turns.
In the great Golden Valley, stretch
Ing north and south of Beach and WI
baux on the North Dakota and Mon
tana line, we are told that the yields
compare favorably with those OF the
Red River Valley. This we know to
! be true. at least for some seasons. for
we have rode over both valleys from
end to end more than once; but dry
farming Is not practiced by one farm
er in hundred in Golden Valley.
But Judith Basin" we are asked.
doesn't that yield7-' True. but one
can ride for miles there without find
ing man who even knows what dry
farming means, much less practices IL
Those sections have a soil peculiar
to themselves. and when combined
with slightly greater. and usually
more seasonable rainfall than the
| country on either side of them. have
| brought forth excellent crops with the
most ineXcusably haphazard farming !
we ever saw. 1t is distinctly dishon-
est to point to these sections, or 9th !
ers like them. as proofs OF what dry
farming will do.
We take second place with no man
for the high regard in which we hold |
dry farming and most dry farming
teachers; but do say that the sweep |
ing assertions made by many. who |
from actual and wide experience and |
observation. are not competent to |
write or speak on the subject al all. |
Is dangerously and wrongfully mis-. /
leading. and is doing as much to him
der the cause of dry farming as all |
the laundering of the beginners.