THE AGRICULTURAL FUTURE OF THE REGION. 25 



FUTURE PRICES OF PRODUCTS. 



In the light of the histoiy of agricultural development throughout 

 the country it would seem comparatively certain tliat prices of farm 

 products must average higher in the future than they have during 

 the last 25 years. All prominent industrialists and political econ- 

 omists appear to be agreed upon this point. Therefore, it seems 

 comparatively safe to assume that smaller yields of grain than have 

 been required in the past will be sufHcient to ])r()duce a living ])rofit. 



IMPROVED METHODS OF TILLAGE. 



In the Great Plains region by far the largest portion of the 

 precipitation comes during the warm months, and it is probably 

 impossible to conserve as large a proportion of the rainfall as can be 

 saved in the regions where the heavy precipitation occurs during the 

 cooler weather; but the work at North Platte, Nebr., and other sta- 

 tions in the Plains region shows that on summer- tilled fields probably 

 40 or 50 per cent of the summer rainfall can be gotten into the first 

 () feet of soil and held there for the use of the next season's crop. 



It has been frequently asserted that all the rainfall of one year 

 may be imprisoned in the soil and retained there for the use of the 

 following crop. This, however, is a serious mistake. It requires 

 about 3 or 4 inches of dry surface mulch to prevent serious loss of 

 water from the soil below. All the water which does not get through 

 this mulch into the lower layers of soil will be lost to the air by 

 evaporation and not be available for storage. It is evident that, in 

 a region where a large part of the rainfall comes in light showers 

 (hiring the warm weather, a very large proportion of the precipita- 

 tion serves only to wet the surface mulch and is evaporated from it 

 directly into the air. Ordinarily, showers of one-third of an inch, or 

 less coming in the warm part of the year are utterly useless as^far 

 as storing water in summer-tilled land is concerned and not infre- 

 (juently are a source of positive loss, as, being only sufficient to wet 

 the surface mulch and cause a crust to form, they make cultivation 

 necessary for no other purpose than to break the crust thus produced, 

 in order to prevent the loss of water already stored in the lower 

 hiyers of soil and to prevent the growth of weeds that would imme- 

 diately spring up. These statements must not be understood as 

 applying to growing crops. Light showers may be of great value to 

 a growing crop, but for the storing of water by summer tillage light 

 showers are often not only of no value, ])ut are a ])Ositive damage. 



In the Great Plains region, then, it seems fair to assume that not 

 more than 40 to 60 per cent of the rainfall can be gotten deep enough 

 into the soil of a summer-tilled field to be retained there. Most of 



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