OCR Text |
Show VITAL FAR IV! SUBJECT Means of Fighting Drought Cause of Much Discussion. Government Crop Report for August Shows Many Crops Are Far Below Average and Loss Runs Into Millions of Dollars. Deep tillage has become a vital subject sub-ject among farmers all over the United States The government crop report for August has stirred up discussion everywhere of means of lighting drought. Something must be done. The report shows the greatest decline de-cline in the condition of crops during a single month since 1901 a general slump throughout the country, due to drought and intense heat. Taking Into account both acreage and condition, Indications are that the wheat crop will be 4.1 per cent, less than the average annual production 07 the last five years. Corn will be 7 per cent, less, oats 12.3 per cent, less, barley 16.2 per cent, less, buckwheat 8.8 per cent, less, potatoes 21.9 per cent, less, tobacco 25.5 per cent, less, flax 2.3 per cent, less, than the average aver-age production of the last five years. The total loss will run into hundreds of millions. In all the states where the losses were heavy the early season deffl-clency deffl-clency in moisture was a big factor. Following the shortage In rainfull during dur-ing the fore part of the growing season, sea-son, the continued drought and hot winds caused irreparable damage. From many points come reports that farmers are already taking time by the forelock to prevent a repetition or their losses by drought. They will do it by deep tilling this fall. Soli pulverized pul-verized to the depth of 12 to 16 Inches absorbs the rain falls, the melting w;lnter snow, and the early spring rains. The water soaks to the bottom of the deep seed bed below the point of evaporation, and Is held there as a reserve against the time of need. There Is no "lack of subsoil moisture" in ground pulverized 12 to 16 Inches or more. If the ground Is only shallow plowed the water runs off or readily evaporates. evap-orates. In running off, not only Is the moisture lost, but the ground Is damaged dam-aged and often ruined by erosion E. R. Parsons, the Colorado dry-farming dry-farming expert, says: "We talk and complain all the time about dry years, as If they were not always with us. It is the wet year that is the exception, not the dry year, and if a man plows six or seven Inches only and produces ten or twelve bushels bush-els In these dry years, then what's the use of farming? Every year the land is plowed ten or twelve inches you carry over more and more moisture mois-ture and your subsoil eventually becomes be-comes In such a permanent moist condition con-dition that you can raise a 30-bushel crop in the dryest year that ever struck the west. "This may seem like a fairy tale to those who have never tried It, but I would remind them that In California they raise every year, without irrigation, irriga-tion, a bean crop worth about ten millions, without a drop of rain after the plants are up." |