Yerington times. [volume] (Yerington, Nev.) 1907-1932, 1914-11-14
STORE SoIL MOISTURE.
The Nebraska Station Studies Dry
Farming Question.

| has been especially noticeable during
| the past few years and the farther
west of the Missouri one goes the
more it is true that lack of soil mois-
ture is responsible for short crops
more than any other one thing, not
excepting such important matters as
seed selection and cultivation West
of the 9th meridian in Nebraska as
well as in the Dakotas there is a scar
city of moisture almost every year,
hence methods of moisture conserva-
ton are of prime Importance to the
farmers of that territory at all times.
Realizing this, the Nebraska expert
ment station established substation
at North Platte many years ago where
for number of years experiments
have been conducted with view of
learning as much as possible about
the movement of water in the soil,
how to conserve it for the use OF
crops, and how to. store it in the soil
from one year to another In other
words, this saton has been studying
what has come to be referred to as
dry farming"
The term dry farming is misno-
mer to some extent 1t has led many
farmers to suppose that it represents
growing crops without moisture, or
rather with a small amount, which it
does not Crops grown in the semi
arid regions need just as much water
as those grown in the humid section;
in fact, they need more because of
| the drying winds that prevail which
increase Transportation, that is the ex-
halation of moisture by the plants.
| Summer following, that is cultivation
| of the soil at intervals OF one to two
weeks during the summer season, Is
| the principle made use of in the drier
sections of our territory to conserve
! moisture. Some farmers have as
sumed, it seems, that frequent cult
season increases in some mysterious
way the amount of water in that soil,
| but this is a mistake There is only
! one way of increasing the water con
tent OF a soil and that is by rain.
! What surface cultivation can do, and
| does do, is to prevent the water in the
soil from escaping into the atmos
phere. 1t is impossible to conserve all
the moisture of seson by surface
cultivation but a certain percentage
| of it can be stored in the soil through
| this method.
The substation at North Platte
found that during a series of years
they are able to store from 10 to 80
per cent of a seasons rainfall by cul-
tivating frequently enough to keep
the surface three or four inches of
soil loose, and by preventing weed
growth In other words, from a Is
inch seasons rainfall they were able
to store and retain in the soil for
the use of crops the succeeding year
about five inches, but sometimes not
more than Is inches, or ten per cent
of the total rainfall. The variation in
| the amount of water stored in differ
ent years was found to depend upon a
number of conditions. In order to re
| tain as much of that water as possible
| the surface must be broken with a
| disk or harrow or other suitable pull
verizing implement Immediately after
| the rain.
Since the mulch has to be from
| three to four inches deep it can read
| ily be seen that the moisture in only
| about two inches of this soil can be
conserved because that stored in teh
top mulch is lost in a very few days.
Then, too a very dry soil does not
absorb moisture so readily as a wet
soil
According to the Nebraska investi-
cations, such crops as spring wheat,
oats, barley and corn draw their mois-
ure supply from soil depth o fonly
four inches, whereas winter wheat,
which has larger period of growth,
and therefore attains greater root de
velopment, draws moisture from the
soil to a depth of six and seven inches.
Legumes, by reason of their being
deep-rooted plants, draw moisture
from still greater depths; and alfalfa,
the deepest-rooted agricultural plant
we have, frequently draws moisture
from a depth of 20 to 80 feet below the
surface. This one of the main rea-
sons why alfalfa is such a valuable
crop in semi-arid sections. Once al
falfa is thoroughly established it is
practically certain to produce some
thing even under very adverse condi-
tons in semi-arid sections.