Show FRUIT ON A DRY FARM method M given to make it absolutely 0 drouth proof before planting single tree two years moisture Is secured by flowing year ahead and keep ing ground cultivated uy BY E it PARSONS twenty beara ears ago I 1 published u statement that trees and crops could be raised anywhere on suitable soil sail between the bocky mountains and AT r river without irrigation L lery cry body laughed some went as tar far as to bay u that euch such exaggerated statements only hurt the state a lew few took the hint others myself had nr rived at this truth ald wid there are now baude trees and family fatuity orchards ell all over the state few ew and lar tar between it ft is true but quite enough for or proof and no now after twenty years every word ot of this statement la to accepted ns as fact now I 1 make ar another tather statement meat which even the colorado writers ead professors are afraid of and which the eastern papers altogether decline to print or believe yet which ie to capable of proof and will be generally ac cepter in another twenty years and that Is that any man can plant a dry orchard according to the following method and make it absolutely drouth proof this knowledge will do you more good now than twenty years hence and I 1 submit it not for the enlightenment of mr air W 0 curtis mr wallace and L others who affect to see little or no good in dry farming but tor for the benefit of the few who can grasp a truth in advance of the popular belief anil and turn it to their own advantage before plant planting lug a single tree we e go to work and secure two years ture for that tree by plowing a year ahead of time cheeping the ground cul cut and digging the boles holes in the fall to catch snow and moisture all winter now la Is the time to get to work plow the ground ao a deep as you can and arrange your lauds so as to bring your dead furrows chero the row of trees Is to be by doing this the surface Is dished tow toward ard the tree and ll 11 there Is to any run off oft it drains towards their roots these dead fur rows are ulso of great advantage aa as enow snow catchers now a piece of land prepared in this manner will III accumulate during an ordinary season three to four rout eel feet of 0 moist earth from the surface down and in the boles holes after a wet winter even live or six feet now to dry all this moisture out in a cultivated area without cropping would take two years or more without a drop of rain so that when a young atiee Is planted two or three feet deep in pit this it Is as I 1 contend absolutely d auth proof for in the bast l atit thirty years tho the longest drouth has been only a lew low months duration drying out no more the top six or eight inches which Is of no value whatever to the tree anyway then we go to work ork and Impo impound every year ten times as much moisture aa as the tree needs as follows A young apple tree just planted aises up a few hundred pounds of mols tirre every year hut but we give these trees an area ot 40 feet fee 1 square plums and cherries 20 fruits 10 now if it you figure out the precipitation on an area of 50 feet square 1600 square feet you will und find that it amounts to about 60 tons per annum now an apple tree from 15 to 20 years of age will use up only from JO to 40 tons per annum and can live if necessary on half of that BO that it Is 18 easy to understand that while the tree Is growing up the orchard la Js gaining an enormous amount of moisture tor for future use and even abon the tree Is full grown you will have tons to top tho good each year which you hold by cultivation in your sub EOll and 7 even if sour our iteen fees should need more moisture et heu they get 1 buy or 40 years they can an bo i out to ho feet ap apart which nich boutu give each tree about wits ous per tier binnum 0 so o that uuro hora Is no need lant langever ever to take any cli canines antes you biake the thep moisture question in the liard na as ematt a science as a or a battles battleship hll in fact it I 1 knew it man would tollow thebe instructions im illicitly I 1 pay bm film u thou thousandth dollars for emery treo tree lost by drouth wo we kaap every decd ced out of 0 the orchard and cultivate tram ten to twelve times during the seabon with a home made cultivator about ten bitet wide which cultivates about twenty acres a day every year from the start the surplus moisture finks pinks deeper and diep er into the subsoil I 1 have followed it down foot toot by foot year by year until now it reaches a depth of nearly twenty feet toe the apple tree thai that aro are forty feet apart stand in r ft cobe of moist earth 40 foot feet square 15 j twenty feet deep contain ing between betheen 20 and tons of water we make our estimates by taking samples all through too the cube weighing wel trem then drying them out thoroughly then weighing again 1 ahls I his gives us tho the exa exact t amount of moisture in each sample by running an average wo get an ampro proximate estimate of what cam cube contains by comparing with other cubes on whick no trees are bet set we aro are able to tell almost exactly what each tree la in using up and by comparing with tho the precipitation can compute tho the loea loss by bir run off or evaporation |