484 Agricultural Experiment Station, Ithaca, N. Y. 



conservation of moisture to overcome the disastrous effects of 

 drought. In the arid and semi-arid regions of the West, where 

 irrigation is successfully practiced, the problem is apparently 

 solved, or is at least reduced to a mere matter of co-opei'ation 

 and cost. But in the Eastern states, entirely different conditions 

 are met. To supply the enormous amount of water required for 

 growing crops means an outlay of money entirely beyond the 

 individual means of most farmers and gardeners. In the West 

 where irrigation is practiced most uniformly, farmers are not 

 required to take into consideration the possibilities of rain. They 

 know that there will be no heavy downpour immediately after 

 flooding their crops. But here there is no such guarantee, and 

 to flood the fields by irrigation and have that followed imme- 

 diately by a heavy rain might mean the entire destruction or 

 serious injury of the crop. Although irrigating systems may be 

 introduced in special cases, yet the great dependence, in this 

 State, must be the rainfall and the conservation of the moisture 

 of the soil. 



The means by which moisture may be conserved are as follows: 



By plowing and tillage, 

 mulches, 

 underdrainage, 



lessening the influence of winds, 

 applications of lime, salt, etc., 

 rotation of crops to increase humus, 

 adapting the crop to the soil. 



Plowing to save moisture. — As already indicated, the first step 

 in the conservation of moisture must be the preparation of the 

 soil so that the rain will sink down and not be carried off by 

 surface drainage. In many sections of the country, especially in 

 the Southern States, the great bane to agriculture is the surface 

 washing of the soil. Owing to shallow plowing and shallow cul- 

 tivation, the water is unable to settle into the hard soil with 

 suflScient rapidity and is carried along the surface, producing 

 those gullies which are thei'e so desti-uctive to farm lands. 



The improvements in the plow have done much towards reme- 

 dying these defects, but there is still a large amount of ignorance 



