OCR Text |
Show Dry Farm Dollar Wheat. ortfor what wnB to bo dono with a dry, unlrrlgutod alkali-covered wnate? ISaatern fnrmera wore Incredulous, but westerners woro eager, for It was their neighborhood; nnd so It foil to tho lot of Prof. II. W. Campbell to Investigate and Illustrate tho principles princi-ples of dry farming, or tho rendering fortllo of arid lands without irrigation. Ills theory maintained that by cultivating culti-vating the top and subsoil of the alkali al-kali deserts, overy particle of moisture mois-ture fulling on tho land could bo hold In the soil, and surfneo cultivation tho year round would tend to produco a profusion of .lowers nnd grain. Tho first methods were crudo nnd expensive, but later developments havo rendored dry farming no more coatly than other kinds. The laud la plowed n year before nny cropn are planted. Disk subsoil plowa break tho soil and pack it into a Arm bed, leaving leav-ing a sort of hard pan through which tho water cannot slip. This well-packed well-packed subsoil also prevents tho powerful, pow-erful, blighting salts rising by evaporation. evap-oration. Tho surface soil la then pulverized pul-verized and cultivated until It Is very Hue. Thla powdor-IIko mulch holds tho ruins and snows of tho wot sen-son sen-son as thoy fall, tho moisture cannot leak through the hard pan, and thus evaporation Is prevented, Tho boII Is worked until It ia apouge-llko and can hold tho molaturo. Aftor each rain tho soil must bo worked anew, until tho plants nro largo enough to hold their own. Immediately after harvesting har-vesting the soil Ih prepared again nnd thou allowed to lie fallow until tho next season's crop. Giant machines have been prepared for tho work. Thirty-two horso plow engines drag behind them 12 14-Inch -mi )i. mil. rr i . - plows, clod breakers, harrow, and pulverizers. Drillers nnd clod spread-txn spread-txn follow later. Thlrty-flvo acres of land enn thus bo cultivated nt a cost of 00 contn nn acre, whero it cost tho pioneer farmer at least $5. Continuously Contin-uously "dry farmed" land -whore ev-eroy ev-eroy particle of moisture Is retained requires only 12 quarts of seed to go an fnr toward & maximum crop production pro-duction as flO or 40 quart in tho ordinary or-dinary wheat belt. 13vcry grain finds fortllo lodgment. |