The silver messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1890-1912, 1912-01-30
DRY LAND EXTREMISTS
Men Who epend Much Time In City
once Not Competent to Write on
Intricate subject ~ Thoss
IN Close Contact.

To see thirty or forty bushels OF
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,
ought to convince our dry farming en-
thusiasts that the natural moisture
Of the soil or subeoil, 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 az could be found-with bu. 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 Ii q
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 b
conserved by accumulation, and thA1
moisture cannot be created where 4
does not exist
They must admit, too. that there ar,
soils and much Of them, that vii
never make anything but very umcer
tain returns where there are but al
teen inches Of rainfall 1t IL easy u
make glowing assertions. that are tru'
enough With many soils and subSoila
but to get onto Z dry. hard-bake'
prairie. with an almost imperviou
subsoil-unless It does hold that pecu
liar quality which responds 20 quickl
to culture-and make 1t produce at al
worth while, Ii quite another thing
There Is much dry soil which VII
| A.
ture Of time. tillage, horse flesh an
patience not one man In a hundre
possesses, and then In many. many II
stances 1t will not
We know 1t is much easier, an
very much more popular, to join wit
the extremists in this thing. point I
the almost experimentation IL
dividual successes and shut our eye
, to the discouraged, misled and poss
bly, ruined, and assert that this, thu
and the other system will wiring emo
nous and certain yields from any an
all dry or desert lands; but we kno'
there is another and larger side to
all. and our sympathies go out to th
man who must experiment long an
patiently 1t his own expense befoi
he knows whether his land win r
. spond to dry farming methods or no,
: whether yields SUFFICIENT will come +,
.. him on his own particular piece {
: dry land to pay for every other yea
!. tillage. and the extra labor and e
> pense he must go to before he ca
. hope to equal ordinary farm land r
turns.
In the great Golden Valley. stretc
. ing north and south of Beach and "
baux on the North Dakota and Mo
tana line. We are told tha. the yielC
:, compare favorably with those of Il
!, Red River Valley. This We know
be true. at least for some seasons. II
We have rode over both valleys fro
= end to end more than once, but dl
. farming is not practiced by one farr
er in hundred in Golden Valley.
n But Judith Basin we are aske
doesn't that yield True, but oil
can ride for miles there without I'm
ing a man who even knows what d.
u farming means. much less practices
e. Those sections have a soil peculi
l. to themselves, and when combine
q with slightly greater. and usual
D more seasonable rainfall. than u
9 country on either side of them. ha'
y brought forth excellent crops with Il
n most inexcusably haphazard farmi,
u We ever saw. II is distinctly disho
70 est to point to these sections, or O,
IS ers like them. as proofs Of what d
q farming will do.
y We take second place with no mi
for the high regard in which We he
q dry farming and most dry farmi
q teachers: but do say that the swe<
70 ing assertions made by many. "
"a from actual and wide experience a.
y observation. are not competent
Z write or speak on the subject al q
~ Is dangerously and wrongfully m
40 leading. and is doing as much to h
der the cause of dry farming as
the laundering of the beginners.
\ Fresh Eggs.
!, An egg to belong to the stricl