THE CAMPBELL. METHOD OF OVERCOMING DROUTH. 137 



his corn is enabled to stand the dry weather longer if frequently- 

 cultivated or hoed. The blanket of dust, or loose dry earth, keeps 

 the moisture from coming to the surface where the winds can suck 

 it up. The Campbell method requires the cultivation to be done 

 with some fine-toothed cultivator or harrow set to run not more 

 than two inches deep, and to be repeated once in from five to seven 

 days throughout the growing season. Should the season be hot or 

 dry, the stirring of this dust mulch must be pushed more vigor- 

 ously. This cultivation is not a very expensive operation, as one 

 man with a team is able to cultiv^ate from 20 to 30 acres of wheat, 

 oats, corn or anj'^ other crop per day. Two-row and three-row culti- 

 vators are used in corn, and cultivators 12 feet wide in small grain. 

 The entire cost per acre for labor in excess of the cost of the old 

 method, including the sub-surface packing, amounted, on the 

 Soldiers' Home farm at Lisbon, N. D., in 1896, to 97 cents per acre, a 

 large part of which was oifset by saving of seed in the fields of 

 small grain. All the work was in this case paid for in cash and 

 exact accounts kept. The yield was estimated to be double that 

 by the old method on all crops. 



Some astounding figures are given as to the results of this 

 method. It has never failed to bring a crop when fairlj^ tried. No 

 field tilled according to its rules has ever suffered from drought. 



Last July the writer visited the North Dakota fields and found by 

 digging that in the Campbell fields, from the surface down as far 

 as the spade would reach, the ground was wet enough for the 

 making of mud balls, while in other fields, as soon as the spade 

 went below the effects of a recent shower, the soil was dry as dust. 

 In 1894 test tubes of dirt were taken from a Campbell field at Hast- 

 ings, Neb., and from adjoining fields, and sent to the department of 

 agriculture at Washington for analysis. In that July only one- 

 sixteenth of an inch of rainfall occurred on these fields. The aver- 

 age percentage of inoisture in the upper 12 inches of soil during 

 this month was, in the Campbell fields about 18 per cent, in the 

 other fields about 8 per cent. The observations were taken at 6 

 o'clock every evening and furnished a most striking proof of the 

 efficacy of this method of conserving moisture. Eighteen per cent 

 of moisture is enough to insure rapid and flourishing growth; 8 per 

 cent is, to all appearances, absolutel}' dr^-. 



In 1896 about a dozen model farms were operated bj' the North- 

 ern Pacific and the Soo Line railway, in North Dakota. The results 

 were such as to impel these roads to prepare for more farms next 

 year, and the Northern Pacific has made an offer of premiums for 

 the best fields tilled by this method by farmers of sixteen coun- 

 ties in North Dakota. 



For cold storage of fruits, ice is not used, the building being so 

 constructed as to use air by opening the building to cool outside air 

 nights, and closing during the day. Cold storage is used only to 

 bridge over the keeping of fruits for a time and to thereby exclude 

 frost. The price per barrel on apples will be increased from fifty 

 cents to $l.oO each season, and the advanced price more than pays 

 forthe buildings each year. The marketing season could be extended 

 from October to June. 



