500 



CONSERVATION 



banking, tile drainage, deep culture, sub- 

 soiling, sodding, and planting to crops. 

 The reclamation of washed soils is con- 

 sidered. Terracing is highly commended 

 for hillside farming. 



Methods are also discussed for the 

 prevention of the drifting of soil under 

 the influence of winds. Among the 

 methods advised are frequent rotation 

 in long, narrow lands, increasing the 

 water-holding power of the soil, leaving 

 the ground uneven after seeding, the 

 preservation of wooded belts in north 

 and south strips, and the planting of 

 windbreaks. Says the bulletin : 



Considered in its general aspects, the work 

 which the agricuUural experiment stations 

 have done along the lines of preventing the 

 washing and drifting of soils is of great 

 economic significance. Means for preventing 

 the further waste of the natural resources 

 of the soil have been discovered. If these 

 nrinciples are put into practise, large tracts 

 of land now useless can be brought under 

 cultivation, and if these lands are worked 

 in accordance with methods of restoring and 

 maintaining soil fertility, which the stations 

 and this department have discovered and 

 published, the extent of the wealth-producing 

 power thus conserved to the farmers of the 

 United States will be enormous. 



^ ^ «r' 

 Dry-'land Farming 



TWO practicable methods for re- 

 claiming semi-arid lands have been 

 found ; the first is irrigation, the second 

 is dry-land farming. 



Dry farming has been defined as 

 "farm operations under limited rainfall 

 in districts where irrigation water can- 

 not be obtained or where the supply of 

 irrigation water is inadequate to meet 

 the requirements of the acreage." 



Under irrigation the water is stored 

 in reservoirs and turned upon the land 

 when needed ; under dry farming the 

 water is stored in the soil itself. 



Dry farming demands the establish- 

 ment of a natural reservoir in the soil 

 by the conservation of the limited rain- 

 fall or other form of moisture through 

 methods by which waste and evapora- 

 tion are prevented. 



A dry farmer is a man who, in a re- 

 gion of rainfall under twenty-five inches 

 annually, cultivates the land that has, 

 in the past, been deemed worthless, and 



conserves the moisture so that it is suffi- 

 cient for his crop. 



The dry farmer recognizes that land 

 commonly regarded worthless for agri- 

 culture, frequently receives sufficient 

 rainfall per year to meet the needs of 

 farm life, much of which rainwater, 

 however, is permitted to disappear 

 through evaporation. The dry farmer 

 devises plans, some of which were ex- 

 plained in Conservation for March 

 (page 173), whereby this evaporation 

 may be reduced to the minimum. In 

 addition, drought-resisting plants are 

 sought the dry world over, and intro- 

 duced. 



The success of dry farming means 

 the bringing into use of millions of acres 

 of now almost worthless land in the 

 semi-arid West, not to mention similar 

 lands in other places. In fact, the Dry 

 Farming Congress announces that there 

 are 200,000,000 acres of arable lands 

 awaiting development by the dry-farm- 

 ing method. 



Though dry farming is in its infancy, 

 the results already reported are most 

 encouraging. Land once sold for taxes 

 is even now producing every variety of 

 cereal, vegetable and fruit. From a drug 

 on the market, at 50 cents an acre, to 

 active market value, at $25 an acre, is 

 by no means an unusual advance. 

 Among these results, may be mentioned 

 the following: 



One farmer exhibited at the Dry 

 Farming Congress a sample of rye 

 raised without irrigation. It stands 

 three feet six inches high and is fully 

 headed out, although plucked before it 

 had matured. The same farmer has 

 forty acres of dry-farm wheat which, 

 he says, promises to yield a banner har- 

 •/est. Another farmer claims to have 

 raised a wheat crop last year, all on dry 

 land, yielding him $35,000. He now 

 lies 3.836 acres, and a comfortable for- 

 tune drawing interest. Another farmer 

 raised fifty-one melons on one square 

 rod of dry land. Still another dry-land 

 farmer quoted has 1,320 acres, repre- 

 senting the investment of part of his 

 profits from dry-farm wheat and oats. 

 In addition he is reported to have nearly 

 $100,000 in cash and other possessions. 



