Show MAKING USE OF WATER requirements reduced by thorough cultivation of soil deep 1 and frequent plowing so that weathering of winter may be felt to great depths and strongly la Is of importance dy W V C leil north dakota agri aerl cultural college Col leKO ono one of tho the limiting factors in crop production in tho the dry farming region to la water how to make it go go as far as possible la Is fully as important Import nut as aa getting it into tho the soil and keeping it there dr widtsoe ot of utah pre prepared a paper tor for tile the dry farming congress entitled illow how to reduce tho the water of plants it was in one sense epoch making ile ho opened with the statement ent that it required from to pounds of water to produce one pound of dry matter ha a quoted tho the experiment of 0 of prance who found that oti on poor soil boll it required 1109 pounds of water to produce one pound of dry matter while on fertile soil it required hut but rl ex perl peri menta in utah brought out similar results tor for instance corn grown on a 11 naturally piece I 1 of land rp required pounds of water to produce one pound of dry matter when it required vat adding somo BOMS sodium nitrate in addition to the manuro reduced it to in another experiment corn grown on sandy bandy loam not cultivated required pounds of water when cultivated it was reduced to on clay loam not cultivated pounds were required cultivating reduced it to on clay soil not cultivated pounds was waa the requirement when cultivated this was reduced to the significance of these figures la Is not easy to estimate in most elections even in humid and irrigated ones but especially in the dry farming regions water la is the limiting factor in crop production by having the soil well provided with available plant food tho plant can make more growth with a given amount of water just as ono ona would have to eat more soup it it were thin than it if thick to supply a given amount of food janurin g by putting snore more plant food in the soil increases production without increasing the moisture requirements cultivating by keeping keepin g the moisture from i rating makes ideal conditions for f or germs to work on the inert plant food making it available and so a larger plant growth part ot of the value of the summer fallow comes from the plant food made available and not alone from saving up moisture ite ire sums bums up as present time the only means meana pox poa hessed by the farmer tor for controlling transpiration and making possible maximum crops with the minimum amount of water in a properly tilled soil Is to keep the sell eoll as fertile as aa possible in the light of this principle the practice usually recommended tor for the storing of water and for the prevention of the direct evaporation of 0 water from the soil are emphasized deep and frequent plowing preferably in the tall fall so BO that the weathering of the winter may be felt to great depths and strongly la Is of uie first importance in liberating plant food cultivation which has been recommended tor for the prevention of the direct evaporation ot water Is of itself an effective factor in setting betting tree free plant food and thus thua in reducing the amount of water required by plants the tha experiments at the utah station referred to bring out most strikingly the value of cultivation I 1 in reducing transpiration in the same connection it to Is interesting to bring up the results s of expert monta ments conducted by prof snyder ot minnesota 11 he found for InA instance tance that timothy grown on poor land had a protein content of 6 per cent while that grown on good land contained 8 per cent in other words on the rich soil boil the plant put 36 pet cent more food value into the crop in another experiment he found that corn fodder grown on poor land contained 6 per cent protein on the same land 9 per cent on clover sod 10 per cent or in other words two tons of corn toder fodder from a rich soil contained more food value than three tons from a poor soil eoll the plant la Is a good deal like a carpenter when lumber to la cheap pe he wastes more As lt it gets geta expensive or hard to get he ha uses it more economically the same way with wl th the plant as aa it finds the food hard bard to got get it it makes it go further and consequently produces prodie a plant litif less food value |