The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1917-09-07
l.. G. AICHER

l.. @. AICHER
Some Cold Facts About Dry Farming
BY superintendent of Government
Experiment Farm. Some Fallacies
Explained. Some New Crops Tried.
L. G. Aicher, the superintendent
of the Aberdeen Experiment farm.
when asked about the dry farm ques-
ton in the Aberdeen country, said
he was hopeful of the ultimate sue
cess of the industry, but that men
should not lose sight of the fact that
this soil has never yet conserved
enough moisture from winters SHOWS
and spring rains to develop crop,
and that it does not matter much
how plentiful the moisture the first
of April, it evaporates for the most
part, and must be reinforced by rains
in June. Failure to have late spring
rains has always brought great
sacrifice in the grain crop.
The average precipitation for the
years 1912 to 1916 inclusive, was
9.76 inches, or about three-quarters
of an inch per month. Most of it
comes at the wrong time to do the
grain much good. What falls during
the winter is partly wasted by run
ming off while the ground is frozen,
and partly by evaporation during the
cold, windy spring weather. What
falls in May and June goes into the
ground and is ready for use at the
time it is needed. Failure to have
rains in May and June had always
meant at least partial crop failure.
The ground does not absorb and re-
tain very much moisture at one time,
and altho the point of saturation
may be reached by early spring
rains, the water evaporates before
the period of growth Is finished. If
farmers can find ways to treat the
soil to hold the moisture longer that
will increase the crop yield. 1t that
can be done by deep blowing or sum-
merfallowing or cultivation or by all
of these means. then it will become
question of how much expense is
justified by the returns secured.
If grain crops are not sufficiently
profitable to satisfy, then other
crops must be found or we face fail
ure. Sweet clover and alfalfa have
not brought very encouraging results
at the experiment station. 1t attains
it's greatest amount of growth and
vigor the second year, and then de-
clines. The growth of alfalfa the
first year does not seem to exhaust !
the supply of moisture, and there is
part of the effect of summer fallow-
ho
good growth, and the supply of mois-
ture is exhausted. There is no chance
for it to recuperate, because the
plants keep it used up. The ground
is not so mellow as it was the second
year, there is less moisture, and the
plants are small and spindling. II
it is plowed under for fertilizer, it
amounts to but little. If plowed
early in the season while the soil
Is moist enough to rot it, there is
not much to rot; if it is left till the
plants attain larger growth, the
soil becomes so dry that the plants
do not rot, but simply lie in the dry
ground and cure. This mixed thru
our dry soil makes it more loose and
porous, and the following season it
dries out worse than if the hay had
not been plowed in. If it is plowed
under early, then the root system S
must be the main benefit, and the !
root system that forms in one year
has not much of legumes to contri-
butte nitrogen to the soil. Peas S
raised in rotation with wheat have l
shown more benefits to the soil than J
sweet clover or alfalfa, and in our '
the gold coin wheat has t
proven the worst to winter kill. t
There is so much difference in the t
different varieties of wheat, that it I
s important that men who are going |
% raise wheat should get the best t
kinds possible for dry farming, and t
hen continue to raise that kind /
light along, using the acclimated 9
iced rather than something that is
new to the locality. t
Dry farm beet seed is one of the 4
crops on the expert s
mental farm for 1917, and the re- /
iults are promising Beets set four y
'eet apart each way produced con- v
iderable seed, and the plants looked b
green and fresh all summer; very b
much like the Russian thistle, green l
md juicy, altho growing in ground c
hat seemed too dry to sustain them. s
A great many of the dry farmers c
lave ceased to use their fertilizers fl
because it makes the crops burn a
ooner. The trouble is that they a
pread it on too thick. 1t must be t.
sed in very moderate amounts or e
will be a damage. They are act f
ng on the theory that if little is a
God, flood will be better, but that
, not true in all things. They have C
cry little fertilizer, and they have "
lenty of land to spread it on. 1t p
hould be spread very, very thin, and n
1ey will get results If they use 1t g
/ that way. II