OCR Text |
Show TO CONSERVE WATER Practice Dry Farming When There Is Plenty Rain. Application of Humid Method! In Semi-Arid Semi-Arid Condition! Meant Repeated Crop Failures Lessening profile prof-ile to Farmera. The question Ih onii'tlmcs rained: "Shall we practice dry farming when there U plenty of rain?" Mont assured-ly, assured-ly, writes J. II. Worat of the North Dakota Agricultural college In the Wallace' Wal-lace' Farmer. The time to conserve moluture la when there la molaturu to conserve. A fanner remarked to me the other day: "1 have got the molHture molH-ture on my farm down to a depth of more thau thiee feet already." That farmer's Idea la exactly right. He la conserving molHture now for next year's crop, while his neighbors are allowing al-lowing the molHture that has recently fallen In abundance to go Ita uaual way, according to the laws of chance. Next spring his neighbors will plant their wheat and other amnll grain and depend upon the clouds to furnlHh moisture as the grain may need It. This famer will get Just as much rain from the clouds as they, and will, In addition, have a large quantity of water wa-ter stored up In the subsoil to nourlHh the crop should a dry spell occur during dur-ing thn growing aeason. And that dry apell la very apt to come. I will venture ven-ture that this particular farmer will have a big crop next year, whether his neighbors do or not. If they get a big crop, he w ill get a bigger crop. It haa been fully demonstrated that coiiHldentble portion of the rainfall of any one year can be conserved ami carried over In the eoll for the benefit of the next year's crop. Where the average rainfall la eighteen Inches, It should be an easy matter to carry four or live Inches of autumn rain water over the winter for next season'! crop. Four Inches of water represents ai-proxlmately ai-proxlmately 4M) tons of moisture per acre a sufficient quantity to nourish the growing crop during weeks of protracted pro-tracted drought. As long hh we apply humid methods to semi arid conditions, we may expect repeated crop failures, or partial failures fail-ures that will materially lessen the profits which farmers should realize from their business. It requires approximately seven dollars dol-lars per acre to grow a crop. This Includes In-cludes lnerest on Investment, cost of seed, wear and tear of farm machinery, ma-chinery, labor, etc. My adding one additional ad-ditional dollar's worth of labor to each acre, there Is little question but that the average profits would be doubled. In other words, as much profit should be realized from the one additional dollar! worth of labor as Is now realized real-ized from tbe seven dollar'! worth of unavoidable labor ana" Investment. Consequently, If farmers would devote one-third of their land to the growing of corn and alfalfa, neither of which Interferes with the time and labor employed em-ployed In farming wheat, and put one-third one-third more labor, thus made available, on only two-thirds as many acres of wheat, they would grow more wheat than where they spread their energies over the one third larger area. The corn and alfalfa fed to live stock would Insure them a large additional income, and one that Is not often adversely In. fluenced by climatic conditions, while the fertility deposited upon the farm resulting from feeding the corn and alfalfa to live stock would vastly Improve Im-prove tbe productiveness of the soli. Corn and alfalfa usually can be attended at-tended to when the wheat needs no core, thus distributing the labor more equitably throughout the season. Another thing, shock threshing Is generally bad business, for the reason that all cannot thresh nt once when the grain Is ready for the machine; consequently, all who cannot thresh parly stand a good chance of having their grain Injured In tho shock and also are hindered from plowing until their grain Is threshed. Fully half the farmers are thus hindered from plowing plow-ing early, many of them being compiled com-piled to postpone plowing operations until the following spring (letter to stack the grain as aoon as fit and start the plow. I'low deep, and rollow the plow with a drag. The. drag will conserve more moisture than will get Into the soil from melting snows. Besides, water thus conserved Is where It Is needed Instead of on the surface, where It will speedily evaporate. |