Tombstone epitaph., 1915-02-07
EXPERIMENT IN TEXAS
Valuable Light Thrown on Ques-
 tion of Following.
No Larger Yields of Corn or Cotton From BienniaIly Cropped Land Than From Annually Cropped
 land-Oats Show Increase.

Significant experiments in the prac' tice of following land have recently
 been conducted by the United States department of agriculture at San Antonio, Tex. These experiments, ac' cording to the scientists in charge, demonstrate that the practice under such conditions as prevail through out large part of Texas is not ad- yisable. In no case did the investi- gators obtain larger crops of corn or cotton from biennially cropped land. On the other hand, biennially cropped winter oats did show a slight Increase.
 This increase. however, is proba- ply not sufficient to offset certain other economic disadvantages insepa- rable to fallowed land. While the ex- periments are not conclusive, still it is believed that they throw val uable light upon the whole question of following for the purpose of stor- ing in the soil an additional supply Of moisture.
 The practice of following varies widely in different regions. At San Antonio the following period varied from sixteen to nineteen months. Ac- cording to a widespread belief land cultivated for this period but bear. ing no crop would retain so much moisture that any crop raised on 1t the following year would benefit ma. terially. Some persons have gone so far as to assert that the quantity of moisture would be practically double that in land cropped annually. If this theory could be substantiated it's importance to semiarid regions is ob- vious. Unfortunately the results Of the recent experiments which are con, tained in bulletin No. 151 of the United States department of agricul' ture, entitled. Experiments in Cror Production on FalIow Land at San An. tonic, Tex" do not bear out this contention.
 The experiments dealt with three crops, corn. cotton and oats, and GOV cred three years, 1911, 1912 and 1913. While no explanation is offered for this totally unexpected result, the facts speak for themselves. In the case of winter oats the biennial cror shows a very appreciable increase but it Is still doubtful whether this increase means real profit. Fallow land is not only unproductive, but its cultivation actually costs very nearly as much as does the production oi a crop.
 Together with other practical ex periments in raising actual crops the investigators carried on a series of measurements designed to determine the comparative moisture content of annually and biennially cropped land These measurements showed that there was only slight difference ir the moisture content at planting and harvesting times, whether the land had been fallow for long or only a short period. Fallowed land shows somewhat higher moisture in the plats at planting time for oats but otherwise the variations were neg. ligible. Summing the whole matter up. the investigators state that the results of these experiments indicate lhdN NiopppA51 ot ACa7t VI corn, cotton and oats. is not to be for the San Antonio region.
 In considering the application oi these experiments to other sections Of the country it must be borne in mind however, that climatic conditions al San Antonio are quite different from those prevailing in the dry farming 1 regions farther north. The mean an. nual rainfall at San Antonio is re ported as 26s3 inches. This would 1 seem to make crop production fairly | certain, but the rainfall is so unequal | ly distributed and long droughts sc common that the beneficial effects Of this rainfall are much diminished | On the other hand, the winters are mild. the thermometer seldom going | below 15 degrees. and plant life can | grow practically throughout the year. When supplied with sufficient mois ture, the soil produces abundant crops l