24 ELEMENTS OF FARM PRACTICE 



Questions: 



1. What danger is there in plowing a heavy clay soil when wet? 



2. What is to be gained by early fall plowing? 



3. Give some reasons which may make it advisable to defer 

 plowing until late in the fall. 



Arithmetic: 



1. 4 lbs. of clover seed per acre is sufficient to sow with a grain 

 crop for fall pasture. What is the cost per acre of such pasture if 

 clover seed is worth 15c. per pound? 



2. If one acre of such pasture furnishes feed for a cow for 20 

 days, the cow giving ^ pounds of butter fat per day, how much butter 

 fat is produced per acre? What is it worth at 28c. per pound? 



3. Three pounds of rape seed per acre is sufficient to sow with a 

 grain crop for fall pasture. What is the cost per acre of such a crop 

 if rape seed is worth 18c. per pound? 



4. One acre of such rape will feed 10 sheep for 1 week. They 

 will gain 2 lbs. per week each. How many pounds of mutton are pro- 

 duced per acre? What is it worth at 7c. per pound? 



DRT FARMINQ 



Dry farming is a term applied to the culture of land 

 where the rainfall is not sufficient to grow crops in the or- 

 dinary way. It consists in deep plowing, packing the lower 

 part of the furrow slice, and the maintenance of a surface 

 mulch by persistent cultivation of the surface soil to pre- 

 vent evaporation. In many sections in the western and 

 central western part of the United States, the rainfall is 

 less than 20 inches per year. Ordinary methods of farm- 

 ing have not proved profitable in such places, because the 

 moisture was not sufficient to ensure a crop. The aim in 

 dry farming is to so handle the soil that every bit of mois- 

 ture that falls will be taken up by the soil, and the loss 

 of moisture by evaporation will be as small as possible. 

 In some sections where the rainfall is fairly plentiful, — that 

 is, from fifteen to twenty inches per year, — a crop is grown 

 every year. In other places, where the rainfall is only ten 

 to fifteen inches, a crop is grown every other year. 



Deep plowing, or plowing from eight to twelve inches 

 deep, provides a loose mellow soil into which any moisture 

 that falls quickly settles. It provides also much more room 

 for the storage of moisture than is provided by shallow plow- 

 ing, and allows the deep rooting of crops grown so " they 

 can better get the moisture stored in the soil. 



