The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1913-08-02


which there is much diversity
of opinion and debate among
farmers operating in the semiarid
West today, or under an annual pre-
cipitation of 20 inches OF less. Out
in Utah, Idaho, Oregon and Washing
ton and parts of Montana, districts
Of very low rainfall, usually less than
10 inches annually, Is per cent OF
which falls during late autumn, win
ter and early spring months and a
large per cent of which is snow, the
Importance of the summer fallow is
no longer debatabIe 1t is known to
be an absolute necessity TO profitable
wheat farming and undoubtedly will
continue to be as long a wheat grow
ing remains the basic dry farm crop,
or until drouth resistant and carly
maturing strains of intertilled crops
such as corn. alfalfa. Canada peas,
Mexican beans. potatoes, sorghuns,
ETC., can be developed or discovered
to take the place of the fallow.
It is in the Plains Region of low
precipitation or within that agricul-
tural area lying between the Tooth
meridian on the east and the eastern
slope of the Rocky Mountains on the
west, and where IS per cent of the
Ii to 20 inches annual precipitation
comes during the growing season or
during the months of April, May, June
and July, that the merits of the sum
mer faIlow are disputed Most farm
ers operating within this area are IN
able to understand how profitable
farming can be carried on under a
system of farming that requires one
half of every mans farm to lie idle
every year as would be the case under
the summer fallow or tillage method.
In the extreme western counties OF
this state, Kansas, the great concern
of every farmer operating there is
moisture. In years of abundance OF
rainfall crops are usually good, no
matter what system has been fol-
lowed. Profitable crops are produced
in such years even when wheat has
been studied in after wheat but in
dry years such a system results in
failure and the country is condemned
because it is too dry to produce crops,
when in reality the fault is not with
the country but with the men. It has
been thoroughly demonstrated through
experiment that the summer fallow
when properly prepared and cared for
enables the farmer to store in his soil
a large amount of the moisture of two
years precipitation for the production
of one crop; thus through its use
profitable crops can usually be pro-
duced even. in years of the most ex-
IRENE drouth. The real merits, there
fore, of the summer fa1low are only
brought out in dry years, though 1t
also enables the farmer to produce
bigger yields than is possible under
any other system OF farming in years
OF ample moisture.
Summer faIloW or summer tilIage
consists in blowing the land thorough
ly to a good depth, seven inches or
even deeper either in the fall or in
the spring as weather conditions, soil
moisture conditions and the DISPOSE
ton of the farmers time will permit,
and left to lie over during the sum-
mer in a cultivated condition and
free from vegetation of any kind. The
deep blowing facilitates the storing
of summer rains and the surface cul-
tivation checks its evaporation from
the soil until it can be utilized by the
growing crop. Weeds, volunteer grain
or any form of vegetation must not
be allowed to grow on the fallow be-
cause they drink from the land as