The Springfield herald., 1914-01-16
Ten Years
Of !: !! py Dry, Farming
s. M. KonkeI
In Farm and Fireside,
Spencer, Ohio.

oPChNSis oHiO'
DRY farming and socialism are
alike in the variousness of the
interpretations put upon them.
Every man has an understand
ing of his own and an interpre,
alton of his own. | am not writ
ing this to eXpound the best
methods of dry farming, nor to
dilate on the scientific methods
that have been promulgated, but
to tell what [ have found out a.
bout the west by observation
and practical application as Il
farming country.
AS to the exact method of dry
farming, it isn't a thing that can
be theoretically set forth and
reliably followed, nor q thing
that can be determined in short
order by practical tests. Its a
growth, an evolution, passing
gradually through the infantile
and juvenile stages to maturity,
and is consequently a thing that
our children will know more a.
bout than the best of us do now.
will say briefly that dry
farming isn't cropping every
other year by the summer-Ui l.
age method. nor cropping with
out any rain, nor by any ono set
method, but cropping to the best
of our means and unders nding
to get the best results possible
with the rain that we have.
l am in the corner county of
southeastern Colorado, and am
consequently in the heart of the
dry belt. l helped to settle this
country twenty-seven years ago,
though / was not then engaged
in dry farming, and left under
the solemn conviction that the
country was everlastingly doom
ed; that God made it for rumin-
ants to browse over by day and
carnivorous beasts to roam and
howl in by night; and nineteen
twentieths of the forlorn popula-
ton felt likewise and faced about
and made tracks for land of
higher grass and taller timber.
After fourteen years, during
which time l thought of this
country only as one having the
stamp of the seal of doom upon
it, ] came back to recoup some
reverses | had sustained else
where OF course l didn't come
back to farm. I thought could
manage to get 1t start in cattle,
and in cattle there is money.
When l got back | found there
was practically nothing known
of the possibilities of farming
here. 1t had been relegated to
secondary. place by the few
settlers that stayed with the
country, and no efforts made in
that direction except to raise a
little fodder for their cattle.
What was done IN that direc
ton was kind of horse back
farming. But / found that at
least the things they were at
tempting to raise We're different.
In the old days there was 10th
ing but corn, and all the farming
was on the hard land. Now for
their roughage they were grow
ing sorghum and milo maize and
few were growing broom corn.
As an Indication of the farming
that was done prior to that time,
there was an old thraShing ma
chine over the line in Kansas that
did all the thrashing for the
counties round about. There
was a self binder in this neigh
borhood that would sometimes
drive twenty miles to do little
cutting for some man. There
was one riding lister in a radius
uf twenty miles. There were no
cultivators, the cultivation being
done with the knife weeder and
the harrow. In IA word, the
walking lister, the knife weeder,
and borrow, and sled for cut
ting up their fodder, constituted
the farming equipment of tie