The Raymer enterprise., 1914-01-29
MAKING USE OF WATER
Requirements Reduced by Thor
ough Cultivation Of Soil
Deep and Frequent Flowing So That
Weatherins Of Winter May be Felt
to Great Depths and Strongly
IL Of importance.

- OF IWPof hdHCes
t3y W. c. PALMER. North Dakota Agri-
cultural ColIege.1
One Of the limiting factors In crop
production in the dry farming region
is water. How to make 1t 90 as far
as possible Is fully as important as
getting It into the soil and keeping II
there. Dr. Widtsoe of Utah prepared
paper for the Dry Farming Congress
entitled. How to Reduce the Water
Requirements OF Plants" 1t was in
one sense epoch making. He opened
with the statement that 1t required
from 300 to 5000 pounds of water to
produce one pound OF dry matter He
quoted the experiment Of Pagnous OF
France who found that on poor soil 1t
required ll09 pounds of water to pro-
duce one pound Of dry matter. while
on fertile soil 1t required but 574. Ex-
periments In Utah brought out similar
results-for instance corn grown on Q
naturally fertile piece Of land re-
quired s0S pounds Of water to produce
one pound Of dry matter. When ma
nured 1t required but 6l2. adding some
sodium nitrate In addition to the ma
nure reduced 1t to 5s5. In another
experiment corn grown on sandy loan
not cultivated required 603 pounds Of
water. When cultivated it was re-
duced to 252. On clay loan not cul-
tiyated 535 pounds were required.
Cultivating reduced It to 428. On clay
soil not cultivated 1853 pounds was the
requirement-when cultivated this
was reduced to $50.
The Significance of these figures is
not easy to estimate. In most sections
even In humid and irrigated ones but
especially In the dry farming regions
water is the limiting factor in crop
production. BY having the soil we'll
provided with available plant food the
plant can make more growth with q
given amount Of water-just as one
would have TO eat more soup II 1t were
thin than II thick to supply a given
amount OF food. Manuring by putting
more plant food In the soil increases
production without increasing the
moisture requirements. Cultivating
by keeping the moisture from evapo-
rating makes ideal conditions for
germs to work on the inert plant
food. making II available and SO a
larger plant growth. Part OF the value
of the summer-fallow comes from the
plant food made available and not
alone from saving up moisture
He sums up as follows: AT the
present time the only means pos
sessed by the farmer for controlling
Transportation and making possible
maximum crops with the minimum
amount Of water in properly titled
soil is to keep the soil as fertile as
possible In the light of this principle
the practice usually recommended for
the storing OF water and for the pre-
vention Of the direct evaporation OF
water from the soil are emphasized.
Deep and frequent plowing, preferably
In the fall, SO that the weathering OF
the winter may be felt to great depths
and strongly, is Of the first Importance
In liberating plant food. Cultivation
which has been recommended for the
prevention OF the direct evaporation
OF water Is OF itself an effective factor
In setting free plant food and thus
In reducing the amount OF water re-
quired by plants.
The experiments at the Utah station
referred to bring out most strikingly
the value Of cultivation in reducing
Transportation.
In the same connection 1t is interest
ing to bring up the results Of expert
ments conducted by Prof. Snyder of
Minnesota. He found, for instance.
that timothy grown on poor land had
protein content Of 6h per cent,
while that grown on good land con-
tanned SA per cent. In other words.
on the rich soil the plant put SO per
cent. more food value into the crop.
In another experiment he found that
corn fodder grown on poor land con-
tanned 6ss per cent. protein. On the
same land manured, 81 per cent On
clover sod manured 10s per cent,
or in other words two tons of corn
fodder from a rich soil contained more
food value than three tons from poor
soil. The plant is good deal like a
carpenter; when lumber is cheap he
wastes more. AS 1t gets expensive or
hard to get he uses 1t more econom-
ically. The same way with the plant
-as It finds the food hard to get 1t
makes 1t go further and consequently
produces plant with less food value.