OCR Text |
Show DRY FARM METHODS uood Results Obtained in Montana Mon-tana and North Dakota. Brought About by Keeping Top Soil Loose in Sort of Mulch, Sealing Ground and Preventing Escape Es-cape of Moisture. I received a letter recently from one of my valued friends, who wrlteB concerning the good results obtained obtain-ed this season in portions of North Dukota aud Montana, by the practice of those methods which are known today as dry farming methods, writes O. C. Gregg in the Northwestern Agriculturist. Ag-riculturist. This system of soil handling han-dling will soon come to be regarded as manifestly correct and as absolutely absolute-ly necessary to be observed in the many portions of our great west. The reason for it is quite manifest to those who will give it thought. This is in substance the constant keeping of the top soil loose. This loose- top soil is sometimes called a mulch. This, as we have stated before, seals the ground against the escape of ths moisture that lies beneath. We can think of it as bottling up the moisture mois-ture that we need so that it cannot escape us. This loosening of the soil is made early in the spring so there svill be no escape of moisture before planting or sowing Is done, and is still Kept up after the plants are sown or planted. In that way the moisture is held in the soil and only escapes, practically, by ascending through the 6ystem and leaf of the plants that ft'e desire to grow. When water so ascends it acts upon the plant very much like water that may be held in the dam but is allowed to escape through a sluice and over the water wheel and so turns the machinery of the mill. When we have an abundance abun-dance of water why then we let nature na-ture do as it should without our interference, in-terference, but when we are short of water we can stop the escape, very much as the mill man closes the running run-ning stream and makes the water accumulate ac-cumulate in a pond where it shall be used at his will. With this principle prin-ciple in mind we also can unite another an-other fact which will become more prominent as time goes by. There vill be a growing of those plants which have a tendency to resist drought more than others. Our experiment ex-periment stations are working in developing de-veloping this class of plants which will be decidedly helpful to us in the future. The outlook now is, that that plant which has become so prominent prom-inent in recent years in dry regions, ylz: alfalfa, will be grown by a variety va-riety that has in it a good measure of drought resisting qualities. It should go without saying, that we also use implements upon the farm that are favorable to the growing of plants during the dry season. The best of drills will be used and we will not regard for one moment the use of broadcasting. We will also sow our grass seeds in drills, rather than to cast it upon the ground to be dragged in at a subsequent time. The hoed field crops will be grown with flat culture. The hilling up of potatoes and corn will be regarded as a wasteful and costly method. Such hills or mounds are easily dried out, while surface cultivation favors a system of loose soil that we have before referred to. We will plow deeper than when we have abundant rainfall, so as to give ample storage for the water that we wish to descend into the soil for future use. That soil too will be repacked to that extent ex-tent that there will be gotid capillary action so the water can readily ascend as-cend when drought comes,, and then . be stored or retained near the surface sur-face by this mulch or loosened soil. |