Show WHEAT ON DRY FARM How Scientific Cultivation Is Rapidly Becoming Recognized Recog-nized in West First Methods Were Crude But Later Developments Have Rendered It No More Costly Than Other Kinds Manner of Operations Oper-ations Dry farming may sound like a forlorn for-lorn Joke to the poor fellows whose acres of corn are being soaked every afternoon about four by these good hard drenching spring rains but real dry farming has grown to bo a subject sub-ject very worthy of attention from formers Interested in tho development of their profession It Is Important enough to have called forth a government gov-ernment pamphlet and to have established estab-lished societies through the west forts for-ts economic application I The farmer 60 years ago hooted at the cultivation of those arid acres In tho west known as tho American Des crtfor what was to bo done with a dry unlrrigated alkalicovered waste Easter n farmers were Incredulous but westerners were eager for It was their neighborhood and so It fell to tho lot of Prof II W Campbell to Investigate and illustrate the principles princi-ples of dry farming or tho rendering fertile of arid lands without Irrigation His theory maintained that by cultivating culti-vating the top and subsoil of the alkali al-kali deserts every particle of moln ture falling on tho land could be held In the soil and surface cultivation the year round would tend to produce a profusion of flowers and grain The first methods were crude and expensive but later development have rendered dry farming no more costly than other kinds The land Is plowed a year before any crops are planted Disk subsoil plows break the soil and pack It Into a firm bed leavIng leav-ing a sort of hard pan through which the water cannot slip This well packed subsoil also prevents the powerful pow-erful blighting salts rising by evap t ° e M s ti s M F Dry Farm Dollar Wheat oration The surface soil Is then pulverized pul-verized and cultivated until It Is very flue This powder llke mulch holds the rains and snoys of the wet season sea-son as they fall tho moisture cannot leak through the hard pan and thus i evaporation is prevented The soil Is worked until It Is sponge liko and can hold the moisture After each rain the soil must be worked anew until the plants are large enough to hold their own Immediately after harvesting har-vesting the soil Is prepared again and then allowed to Ho fallow until tho next seasons crop Giant machines have been prepared for the work Thirtytwo horse plow engines drag behind them 12 14inch plows clod breakers harrow and pulverizers Drillers and clod spreaders spread-ers follow later Thirtyfive acres of land can thus be cultivated at a cost of 90 cents an acre where It cost tho pioneer farmer at least 5 Continuously Contin-uously dry fanned land where ev erey particle of moisture Is retained requires only 12 quarts of seed to go as far toward a maximum crop production pro-duction as 30 or 40 quarts In tho ordinary or-dinary wheat belt Every grain finds fertile lodgment |