The Oakley herald. [volume] (Oakley, Idaho) 1908-1961, 1915-03-19
EXPERIMENT IN TEXAS
Valuable Light Thrown on Ques-
ton OF Following.
No Larger Yields u Corn or Cotton
From BienniaIIy 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 a large part Of Texas is not adj
visable 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-
bly, 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
liable 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. II
this theory could be substantiated Its
Importance to semiarid regions is OBJ
vious. Unfortunately the results OF
the recent experiments which are con-
tanned in bulletin No. ISL of the
United States department Of agricul-
ture, entitled, Experiments in Crop
Production on Fallow Land at San An
tonic, Tex" do not bear out this
contention.
The experiments dealt with three
crops, corn, cotton and oats, and COW
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 crop
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 Of
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 in
the moisture content at planting and
harvesting times, whether the land
had been fallow for long or only
short period Fallowed land shows
a 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
that biennial cropping, at least OF
corn, cotton and oats, is not to be
recommended for the San Antonio
region.
In considering the application OF
these experiments to other sections Of
the country it must be borne in mind,
however, that climatic conditions at
San Antonio are quite different from
those prevailing in the dry farming
regions farther north. The mean an
nual rainfall at San .intonio is re-
ported as 1858 inches. This would
seem to make crop production fairly
certain, but the rainfall is SO UNEQUAL
ly distributed and long droughts so
common that the beneficial effects of
this rainfall are much diminished.
On the other hand, the winters are
mild, the thermometer seldom going
below Is degrees. and plant life can
grow practically throughout the year.
When supplied with sufficient mois-
ture, the soil produces abundant crops