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Show The Secret of Dry Farming. When rain falls It does uot actually eoak into the earth, but bores its way in, forming tiny tubes. These tubes are so small that it would be impossible impos-sible to insert a hair in one of them without bursting its walls. Sometimes the tubes are bored down to a depth jf four or five feet. When the surface dries, the water evaporates from the tubes just as it would from a pipe. If the tube is twisted It takes longer for the water to evaporate. If one takes a rake and stirs the ground after aft-er each rain, he breaks the tops of the tubes, and the water will stand In them for months. In this way the farmers of the west, on the semi-arid lands, store the rainfall one year, and raise a crop of wheat every other year there being sufficient water in two years, but not enough in one, to -aise a crop. |