DRY-FARMING: A SYSTEM OF AGRICULTURE FOR COUNTRIES UNDER A LOW RAINFALL TEXT

be broken to let the plants have full freedom of growth and development. This is accomplished by slanting the harrow teeth backward, and the crust may then be broken without serious injury to the plants. The smoothing harrow is a very useful implement on the dry-farm. For following the plow, however, a more useful implement is the disk harrow, which is a comparatively recent invention. It consists of a series of disks which may be set at various angles with the line of traction and thus be made to turn over the soil while at the same time pulverizing it. The best dry-farm practice is to plow in the fall and let the soil lie in the rough during the winter months. In the spring the land is thoroughly disked and reduced to a fine condition. Following this the smoothing harrow is occasionally used to form a more perfect mulch. When seeding is to be done immediately after plowing, the plow is followed by the disk harrow, and that in turn is followed by the smoothing harrow. The ground is then ready for seeding. The disk harrow is also used extensively throughout the summer in maintaining a proper mulch. It does its work more effectively than the ordinary smoothing harrow and is, therefore, rapidly displacing all other forms of harrows for the purpose of maintaining a layer of loose soil over the dry-farm. There are several kinds of disk harrows used by dry-farmers. The full disk is, everything considered, the most useful. The cutaway harrow is often used in cultivating old alfalfa land; the spade disk harrow has a very limited application in dry-farming; and the orchard disk harrow is simply a modlfication of the full disk harrow whereby the farmer is able to travel between the rows of trees and so to cultivate the soil under the branches of the trees without injuring the leaves or fruit. One of the great difficulties in dry-farming concerns itself with the prevention of the growth of weeds or volunteer crops. As has been explained in previous chapters, weeds require as much water for their growth as wheat or other useful crops. During the fallow season, the farmer is likely to be overtaken by the weeds and lose much of the value of the fallow by losing soil-moisture through the growth of weeds. Under the most favorable conditions weeds are difficult to handle. The disk harrow itself is not effective. The smoothing harrow is of less value. There is at the present time great need for some implement that will effectively destroy young weeds and prevent their further growth. Attempts are being made to invent such implements, but up to the present without great success. Hogenson reports the finding of an implement on a western dry-farm constructed by the farmer himself which for a number of years has shown itself of high efficiency in keeping the dry-farm free from weeds. Several improved modifications of this implement have been made and tried out on the famous dry-farm district at Nephi, Utah, and with the greatest success. Hunter reports a similar implement in common use on the dry-farms of the Columbia Basin. Spring tooth harrows are also used in a small way on the dry-farms. They have no special advantage over the smoothing harrow or the disk harrow, except in places where the attempt is made to cultivate the soil between the rows of wheat. The curved knife tooth harrow is scareely ever used on dry-farms. It has some value as a pulverizer, but does not seem to have any real advantage over the ordinary disk harrow. Cultivators for stirring the land on which crops are growing are not used extensively on dry-farms. Usually the spring tooth harrow is employed for this work. In dry-farm sections, where corn is grown, the cultivator is frequently used throughout the season. Potatoes grown on dry-farms should be cultivated throughout the season, and as the potato industry grows in the dry-farm territory there will be a greater demand for suitable cultivators. The cultivators to be used on dry-farms are all of the riding kind. They should be so arranged that the horse walking between two rows carries a cultivator that straddles several rows of plants and cultivates the soil between. Disks, shovels, or spring teeth may be used on cultivators. There is a great variety on the market, and each farmer will have to choose such as meet most definitely his needs. The various forms of harrows and cultivators are of the greatest importance in the development of dry-farming. Unless a proper mulch can be kept over the soil during the fallow season, and as far as possible during the growing season, first-class crops cannot be fully respected. The roller is occasionally used in dry-farming, especially in the uplands of the Columbia Basin. It is a somewhat dangerous implement to use where water conservation is important, since the packing resulting from the roller tends to draw water upward from the lower soil layers to be evaporated into the air. Wherever the roller is used, therefore, it should be followed immediately by a harrow. It is valuable chiefly in the localities where the soil is very loose and light and needs packing around the seeds to permit perfect germination. Subsurface packing The subsurface packer invented by Campbell is [shown in Figure 83--not shown--ed.]. The wheels of this machine eighteen inches in diameter, with rims one inch thick at the inner part, beveled two and a half inches to a sharp outer edge, are placed on a shaft, five inches apart. In practice about five hundred pounds of weight are added. This machine, according to Campbell, crowds a one-inch wedge into every five inches of soil with a lateral and a downward pressure and thus packs firmly the soil near the bottom of the plow-furrow. Subsurface packing aims to establish full capillary connection between the plowed upper soil and the undisturbed lower soil-layer; to bring the moist soil in close contact with the straw or organic litter plowed under and thus to hasten decomposition, and to provide a firm seed bed. The subsurface packer probably has some value where the plowed soil containing the stubble is somewhat loose; or on soils which do not permit of a rapid decay of stubble and other organic matter that may be plowed under from season to season. On such soils the packing tendency of the subsurface packer may help prevent loss of soil water, and may also assist in furnishing a more uniform medium through which plant roots may force their way. For all these purposes, the disk is usually equally efficient. Sowing It has already been indicated in previous chapters that proper sowing is one of the most important operations of the dry-farm, quite comparable in importance with plowing or the maintaining of a mulch for retaining soil-moisture. The old-fashioned method of broadcasting has absolutely no place on a dry-farm. The success of dry-farming depends entirely upon the control that the farmer has of all the operations of the farm. By broadcasting, neither the quantity of seed used nor the manner of placing the seed in the ground can be regulated. Drill culture, therefore, introduced by Jethro Tull two hundred years ago, which gives the farmer full control over the process of seeding, is the only system to be used. The numerous seed drills on the market all employ the same principles. Their variations are few and simple. In all seed drills the seed is forced into tubes so placed as to enable the seed to fall into the furrows in the ground. The drills themselves are distinguished almost wholly by the type of the furrow opener and the covering devices which are used. The seed furrow is opened either by a small hoe or a so-called shoe or disk. At the present time it appears that the single disk is the coming method of opening the seed furrow and that the other methods will gradually disappear. As the seed is dropped into the furrow thus made it is covered by some device at the rear of the machine. One of the oldest methods as well as one of the most satisfactory is a series of chains dragging behind the drill and covering the furrow quite completely. It is, however, very desirable that the soil should be pressed carefully around the seed so that germination may begin with the least difficulty whenever the temperature conditions are right. Most of the drills of the day are, therefore, provided with large light wheels, one for each furrow, which press lightly upon the soil and force the soil into intimate contact with the seed The weakness of such an arrangement is that the soil along the drill furrows is left somewhat packed, which leads to a ready escape of the soil-moisture. Many of the drills are so arranged that press wheels may be used at the pleasure of the farmer. The seed drill is already a very useful implement and is rapidly being made to meet the special requirements of the dry-farmer. Corn planters are used almost exclusively on dry-farms where corn is the leading crop. In principle they are very much the same as the press drills. Potatoes are also generally planted by machinery. Wherever seeding machinery has been constructed based upon the principles of dry-farming, it is a very advantageous adjunct to the dry-farm. Harvesting The immense areas of dry-farms are harvested almost wholly by the most modern machinery. For grain, the harvester is used almost exclusively in the districts where the header cannot be used, but wherever conditions permit, the header is and should be used. It has been explained in previous chapters how valuable the tall header stubble is when plowed under as a means of maintaining the fertility of the soil. Besides, there is an ease in handling the header which is not known with the harvester. There are times when the header leads to some waste as, for instance, when the wheat is very low and heads are missed as the machine passes over the ground. In many sections of the dry-farm territory the climatic conditions are such that the wheat cures perfectly while still standing. In such places the combined harvester and thresher is used. The header cuts off the heads of the grain, which are passed up into the thresher, and bags filled with threshed grain are dropped along the path of the machine, while the straw is scattered over the ground. Wherever such a machine can be used, it has been found to be economical and satisfactory. Of recent years corn stalks have been used to better advantage than in the past, for not far from one half of the feeding value of the corn crop is in the stalks, which up to a few years ago were very largely wasted. Corn harvesters are likewise on the market and are quite generally used. It was manifestly impossible on large places to harvest corn by hand and large corn harvesters have, therefore, been made for this purpose. Steam and other motive power Recently numerous persons have suggested that the expense of running a dry-farm could be materially reduced by using some motive power other than horses. Steam, gasoline, and electricity have all been suggested. The steam traction engine is already a fairly well-developed machine and it has been used for plowing purposes on many dry-farms in nearly all the sections of the dry-farm territory. Unfortunately, up to the present it has not shown itself to be very satisfactory. First of all it is to be remembered that the principles of dry-farming require that the topsoil be kept very loose and spongy. The great traction engines have very wide wheels of such tremendous weight that they press down the soil very compactly along their path and in that way defeat one of the important purposes of tillage. Another objection to them is that at present their construction is such as to result in continual breakages. While these breakages in themselves are small and inexpensive, they mean the cessation of all farming operations during the hour or day required for repairs. A large crew of men is thus left more or less idle, to the serious injury of the work and to the great expense of the owner. Undoubtedly, the traction engine has a place in dry-farming, but it has not yet been perfected to such a degree as to make it satisfactory. On heavy soils it is much more useful than on light soils. When the traction engine works satisfactorily, plowing may be done at a cost considerably lower than when horses are employed. In England, Germany, and other European countries some of the difficulties connected with plowing have been overcome by using two engines on the two opposite sides of a field. These engines move synchronously together and, by means of large cables, plows, harrows, or seeders, are pulled back and forth over the field. This method seems to give good satisfaction on many large estates of the old world. Macdonald reports that such a system is in successful operation in the Transvaal in South Africa and is doing work there at a very knew cost. The large initial cost of such a system will, of course, prohibit its use except on the very large farms that are being established in the dry-farm territory. Gasoline engines are also being tried out, but up to date they have not shown themselves as possessing superior advantages over the steam engines. The two objections to them are the same as to the steam engine: first, their great weight, which compresses in a dangerous degree the topsoil and, secondly, the frequent breakages, which make the operation slow and expensive. Over a great part of the West, water power is very abundant and the suggestion has been made that the electric energy which can be developed by means of water power could be used in the cultural operations of the dry-farm. With the development of the trolley car which does not run on rails it would not seem impossible that in favorable localities electricity could be made to serve the farmer in the mechanical tillage of the dry-farm. The substitution of steam and other energy for horse power is yet in the future. Undoubtedly, it will come, but only as improvements are made in the machines. There is here also a great field for being of high service to the farmers who are attempting to reclaim the great deserts of the world. As stated at the beginning of this chapter, dry-farming would probably have been an impossibilityfifty or a hundred years ago because of the absence of suitable machinery. The future of dry-farming rests almost wholly, so far as its profits are concerned, upon the development of new and more suitable machinery for the tillage of the soil in accordance with the established principles of dry-farming. Finally, the recommendations made by Merrill may here be inserted. A dry-farmer for best work should be supplied with the following implements in addition to the necessary wagons and hand tools:-- One Plow. One Disk. One Smoothing Harrow. One Drill Seeder. One Harvester or Header. One Mowing Machine. CHAPTER XVI IRRIGATION AND DRY-FARMING Irrigation-farming and dry-farming are both systems of agriculture devised for the reclamation of countries that ordinarily receive an annual rainfall of twenty inches or less. Irrigation-farming cannot of itself reclaim the arid regions of the world, for the available water supply of arid countries when it shall have been conserved in the best possible way cannot be made to irrigate more than one fifth of the thirsty land. This means that under the highest possible development of irrigation, at least in the United States, there will be five or six acres of unirrigated or dry-farm land for every acre of irrigated land. Irrigation development cannot possibly, therefore, render the dry-farm movement valueless. On the other hand, dry-farming is furthered by the development of irrigation farming, for both these systems of agriculture are characterized by advantages that make irrigation and dry-farming supplementary to each other in the successful development of any arid region. Under irrigation, smaller areas need to be cultivated for the same crop returns, for it has been amply demonstrated that the acre yields under proper irrigation are very much larger than the best yields under the most careful system of dry-farming. Secondly, a greater variety of crops may be grown on the irrigated farm than on the dry-farm. As has already been shown in this volume, only certain drouth resistant crops can be grown profitably upon dry-farms, and these must be grown under the methods of extensive farming. The longer growing crops, including trees, succulent vegetables, and a variety of small fruits, have not as yet been made to yield profitably under arid conditions without the artificial application of water. Further, the irrigation-farmer is not largely dependent upon the weather and, therefore, carries on this work with a feeling of greater security. Of course, it is true that the dry years affect the flow of water in the canals and that the frequent breaking of dams and canal walls leaves the farmer helpless in the face of the blistering heat. Yet, all in all, a greater feeling of security is possessed by the irrigation farmer than by the dry-farmer. Most important, however, are the temperamental differences in men which make some desirous of giving themselves to the cultivation of a small area of irrigated land under intensive conditions and others to dry-farming under extensive conditions. In fact, it is being observed in the arid region that men, because of their temperamental differences, are gradually separating into the two classes of irrigation-farmers and dry-farmers. The dry-farms of necessity cover much larger areas than the irrigated farms. The land is cheaper and the crops are smaller. The methods to be applied are those of extensive farming. The profits on the investment also appear to be somewhat larger. The very necessity of pitting intellect against the fierceness of the drouth appears to have attracted many-men to the dry-farms. Gradually the certainty of producing crops on dry-farms from season to season is becoming established, and the essential difference between the two kinds of farming in the arid districts will then he the difference between intensive and extensive methods of culture. Men will be attracted to one or other of these systems of agriculture according to their personal inclinations. The scarcity of water For the development of a well-rounded commonwealth in an arid region it is, of course, indispensable that irrigation be practiced, for dry-farming of itself will find it difficult to build up populous cities and to supply the great variety of crops demanded by the modern family. In fact, one of the great problems before those engaged in the development of dry-farming at present is the development of homesteads in the dry-farms. A homestead is possible only where there is a sufficient amount of free water available for household and stock purposes. In the portion of the dry-farm territory where the rainfall approximates twenty inches, this problem is not so very difficult, since ground water may be reached easily. In the drier portions, however, where the rainfall is between ten and fifteen inches, the problem is much more important. The conditions that bring the district under the dry-farm designation imply a scarcity of water. On few dry-farms is water available for the needs of the household and the barns. In the Rocky Mountain states numerous dry-farms have been developed from seven to fifteen miles from the nearest source of water, and the main expense of developing these farms has been the hauling of water to the farms to supply the needs of the men and beasts at work on them. Naturally, it is impossible to establish homesteads on the dry-farms unless at least a small supply of water is available; and dry-farming will never he what it might be unless happy homes can be established upon the farms in the arid regions that grow crops without irrigation. To make a dry-farm homestead possible enough water must be available, first of all, to supply the culinary needs