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Show DRYCOUNTRYFARMS Great Many of Settlers Have Little or No Capital. Arid Country Gradually Settling Up and Present-Time Difficulties Will Be Overcome by Adopting Modern Methods. Farming conditions in the dry country coun-try are far more from being settled as they should be and it is too true that many have had only failure or partial success. One reason for discouragement discourage-ment and failure is that the great majority ma-jority settling on the frontier have little money to make a start, writes John Robertson in Campbell's Scientific Scien-tific Farmer. Few have anything left after building a small house on their claim and buying a few necessities, and then must live somehow for about two years before getting any returns from cultivation of the soil. Those ! who do not leave the country, profit from the failure of others, in that they can buy their Improvements, etc., for a small per cent of the actual worth. This Is a condition of affairs In which we find "a survival of the fittest" Many of the first settlers who remained, re-mained, turned their attention to stock raising, letting their stock run on government land, and are now in good circumstances. They have become be-come so accustomed to plenty of land that they have started to cry, 'A man can't make a living on 160 acres of land," which accounts for the various bills for the enactment of a law allowing al-lowing 640-acre homesteads. There may be localities where it would add to the prosperity of the state to allow 640-acre homesteads, but for the majority ma-jority of the western part of the state It would be a mistake. It is not more land that Is needed, but better farming. farm-ing. Many are "land poor" now. One great drawback is the scarcity of water, and, in many localities, poor water. Weils are very uncertain, and a poor man cannot afford to pay for the drilling. Still, as time goes on, the country will gradually settle up, until all the land is taken, and present pres-ent time difficulties will be overcome by adopting methods that best comply with nature's laws for overcoming the drawbacks existing In the various localities. lo-calities. In time more will be produced pro-duced from 40 acres of land than is now from 160 acres. It is hard for the man whn r,, from an eastern state to realize that there are lands here in which there Is no mosture in the subsoil available for crops. If one digs a hole on such land, even after one of our wettest seasons, he will come to soil as dry as though it never had been wet. All we have to depend upon Is the rainfall, rain-fall, which Is uncertain. Many claim that as the country gets settled and land Is cultivated the seasons will change and we will get more rain. This hope is a consolation, but personally per-sonally I have little faith In the theory. the-ory. We have been experiencing more favorable years lately, but the dry years will come again: so let us plan to accept conditions as they have been, study the nature of the country, and by adapting ourselves to conditions, overcome the difficulties. From experience, I have learned there are four main principles to observe ob-serve in making a success of dry land farming, namely: First, deep plowing-second, plowing-second, planting home grown seeds' or those adapted to the particular lo cality; third, planting farther apart or only about two-thirds as much sed to the acre as on wet land; fourth, thorough cultivation. In hard soils a 12-inch plow is large enough for a team weighing from 1.200 and 1,400 pounds each. It is a good idea to use a plow with an extra heavy beam, say a 14-inch plow beam In a 12-Inch plow. We cannot all afford af-ford big horses, nor even enough of small ones in some cases; so where a man has only one eam of bronchos, weighing say 1,000 pounds each, atj maybe a 14 or 16 inch plow, he cat,, not loosen the soil very deep, and win get results accordingly. Good seed is of great Importance If possible, get seeds of some one In the locality, who is making a success and has varieties which are adapted-' observe this rule, especially In Beefl corn. |