The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1912-11-15
DRY FARMING MEET |
BrIsf Review Of ths Proceedings at
ihe Congress At Lsfhbrldgs
Z. v. cATHRo WAS 1 DELEGATE
Report Of !. Fargo Man u Fairly
Comprehensive and Will
b OF Interest

Comprehensive and Will
b OF interest
Mr.. F.W. Cathro recently re-
turned from Lethbridge, Alta. !.
where he attended the three
day international Dry Farming g
Congress. When asked for a
report on the proceedings he
called attention to the report of
!, Mr.. ]. G. Haney Of Fargo and
suggested that it was fairly
complete. Mr.. Haney's report
is in part as follows:
The opening program was
formal affair, says Mr.. Haney
in which the board of gov
ernors, who had charge of the
arrangements for the exhibi-
ton and congress, turned over
the exposition to the officers of
the congress. Hon. J. w. Nc
Nichol, chairman of the board
of control, made the presenta-
tion speech and the acceptance
speech was made by Duncan
Marshall, minister of agricnl-
ture for Alberta.
The congress was formerly
opened by Lieutenant Governor
G. III. Bulyea of Alberta, rep
resenting the Duke of Con-
naught, governors general of
Canada. The prbgram was
impressive and well attended.
The congress convened in a
large auditorium constructed
especially for the congress.
The program consisted of ad-
dresses by the various officers
of the congress and of the states
and nations represented.
Dry farming methods are
considered to apply to.land re-
ceiving less than 20 inches of
rainfall and six-tenths of the
surface of the globe receives
less than this amount of rain.
Only about one-tenth of the
land area,can be irrigated, hence
there is about half Of the
earth 8 surface which must be
reclaimed bv dry farming
methods.
Tuesday, the programs were
presented in sections. attend
ed the section of soil, tillage
and machinery w. G. Nc
Killican of the Brandon, Man. ),
experimental farm presented
very strong argument in favor
of rotation of crops and diversi-
fed farming. He gave rota-
ton in which alfalfa was used
for two or three years. This
short term for the use of alfalfa
was criticized and suggestions
were made for introducing it
into Il longer rotation.
It was noticeable that none
of the speakers failed to- en-
phasize the necessity of paying
more attention to rotation and
diversification of crops. I)r. F.
S. Harris of the agricultural
cellege Of Utah emphasized
particularly the importance of
handling soil so as to get the
maximum benefit from freez-
ing and thawing, or wetting
and drying, to secure the prop.
er filth. He also emphasized
the necessity of blowing under
all vegetable matter.
Prof. Thomas Shaw told Of
the, work being done. by the
Great Northern railroad in
Montana. He says that thev
find the growing of corn on
land and giving it careful cul-
tivation is equivalent to fallow
when put into wheat, and that
the corn crop will pay for the
expense of cultivation. This
admits also Of the keep of live
stock; the corn serving as feed.
Prof. N. Il. Wilson gave the
results of some experiments on
Depths Of Breaking Sod. He
compared the disc plow and the
] mould dboard for such work.
This brought out discussion
which showed that a certain
depth Of breaking might be
successful in one community
and not in another. He de-
clared that shall low breaking
which was rolled down solid as
soon as broke. was sure to hold
moisture. Land broke with
disc plows does not give good
results eaid Shaw He
descri tesl 4 enaent Fcl ller which