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Show VITAL FARM SUBJECT Means of Fighting Drought Cause of Much Discussion. Government Crop Report for August Shows Many Crops Are Far Below Average and Loss Runs Into Millions of Dollars. Deep t J tin ko bas become a vital sub-ect sub-ect amotig farmers all over tho United Btates. Tho government crop report for August bus stirred up discussion everywhere of meaiiB of lighting drought. Something must be done. The report shows the greatest decline de-cline in the condition of crops during a single month since 1901 a general slump throughout tho country, due to drought and Intense beat. Taking Into account both acreage and condition, indications are that the wheat crop wilt be 4.1 per cent, less than tho averugn annual production of the lust five years. Corn will bo 7 per cent, less, oats 12.3 per cent, less, barley 1C.2 per cent, less, buckwheat 8.8 per cent, less, potatoes 21.8 per cent, loss, tobacco 25.6 per cent, less, flax 2.8 per cent, less, than the average aver-age production of the last five years. The total loss will run Into hundreds of millions. In all the states where tho losses were heavy the early season d efficiency effi-ciency in moisture was a big factor. Following the shortage In ralnrull during dur-ing the fore part of the growing season, sea-son, the continued drought and hot winds caused irreparable damage. From many points come reports that farmers are already taking time by tho forelock to prevent a repetition of their losses by drought. They will do it by deep tilling this fall. Soli pulverized pul-verized to the depth of 12 to 16 Inches absorbs the rain falls, the melting winter snow, and the early spring rains. Tho water soaks to tho bottom of the deep seed bed below the point of evaporation, and is held there as a reserve against the time of need. There is no "lack of subsoil moisture" in ground pulverized 12 to 16 inches or more. If the ground is only shallow plowed tho water runs off or readily evaporates. evap-orates. In running off, not only is the moisture lost, but the ground is damaged dam-aged and often ruined by erosion. K. It. Parsons, the Colorado dry-farming dry-farming expert, says: "We tolk ond complain all the time about dry years, as If they were not always with us. It Is the wet year that is the exception, not the dry year, and if a man plows six or seven inches only and produces ten or twelve bushels bush-els In these dry years, then whafs the use of farming? Every year the land Is plowed ten or twelve inches you carry over more and more moisture mois-ture and your subsoil eventually becomes be-comes in such a permanent moist condition con-dition that you can raise a SO bushel crop in the dryest year that ever struck the west. "This may seem like a fairy tale to those who have never tried it, but I woull remind them that in California they raise every year, without irrigation, irriga-tion, a bean crop worth about ten millions, without a drop oi rain after the plants are up." |