CHAPTEK XIX 



DRY FARMING 



The interest that is being taken in dry farming, 

 and the success with which it is practised in 

 Western America, compel the attention of the 

 farmers and planters in all countries that have 

 an absolute deficiency of rainfall, or that suffer 

 from a long dry season, as many parts of the 

 Province of Mozambique do. 



Plants can only absorb food when it is in 

 solution, and they feed, it is believed, not wdth 

 the rain that comes down, but with the moisture 

 that comes up charged with soluble nutritious 

 salts. The rain first soaks down to the water- 

 level, and when the particles of soil are very 

 finely divided, as in clayey soils, the suction 

 exerted keeps the plant well supplied with 

 moisture. Dry farmers tell us that, in order to 

 increase this capillary attraction, the subsoil must 

 be compacted. A writer (Mr. E. J. Kussel) in 

 Nature (November 24, 1910), reviewing recent 



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