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Show SOME DRY FARMING FACTORS Development Depends on Moisture,. Suitable Soil, Successful System and Adaptable Crops. The factors on which the develop ment of dry farming depends are some moisture, suitable soil, a successful system and adapted or adaptable crops. We must have moisture and conserve it; we must have plants and grow them, and It is worse than useless use-less to raise unprofitable crops. Any one of these factors is as indispensable indis-pensable as any other, but perhaps the greatest opportunity for the advancement ad-vancement and success of any kind; of farming comes from the science of plant breeding. There are known limitations to the amount of moisture that may be conserved; con-served; there is a fixed number of varieties of farm crops from which to choose at any one time, but it would be difficult to fix in mind, or estimate a limit to our power to adapt crops, or to our ability to create new and desirable de-sirable farms, says B. C. Baffum in Desert Farmer. What has already been accomplished in plant Improve ment will be realized quickly, others will take a long period of time. The story of the changes which have been made in plants through domestication do-mestication is like a fairy tale. From an annual weed growing on salt sea marshes came our highly developed devel-oped sugar beet, simply by cultivation and selection. From another weed, one of the common mustards, has come the turnip, radish, rape, kale, kohlrabi, brussels sprouts, cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower. This illustration illus-tration is probably the most remarkable remark-able one of variation of any single form of plant life. We now have civilized civ-ilized barleys which are as bald aa our most strenuous thinkers. We have roses without thorns, fruits without seeds, and even onions without smell. What it has taken centuries to do here tofore we now do in a comparatively short number of years. It may be said that we have only Just begun to breed plants scientifically. scientifical-ly. Enough has been done to show, not only the possibilities, but some of the certainties of plant breeding. It is as positive a science as mathematics. mathe-matics. We have much to do to develop suitable varieties for dry farming. We have already learned something of the value of drought resistance and also of the necessity of securing other qualities which make plants more-hardy, more-hardy, more persistent and more productive. pro-ductive. That we will be able to overcome certain objectionable features fea-tures In plants is positively certain. |