DRY FARMING 241 



I have tried various methods of inaugurating dry 

 farming in Loudoun County. The common sub-soil 

 plow which follows the ordinary field plow is hardly 

 sufficient to secure the purpose in view. It is so easily 

 thrown out by a stone, and so difficult to insert except 

 when the land is really too wet to plow, as to make its 

 general application problematical. I have now experi- 

 mented with a deep tilling plow made of a double disc 

 of steel, one disc following the other. I have gone far 

 enough with this work to believe that if taken at the 

 proper time and consistence, just when the land has 

 been thoroughly wet to a great depth and is just dry 

 enough to plow, but not too dry, this double disc will 

 penetrate the clay sub-soil and produce a seed bed to a 

 depth of from fifteen to sixteen inches. If this could 

 be accomplished, the Virginia farmer would be able 

 to snap his fingers at the annual dry spell which he ex- 

 periences. What is true of Loudoun County is true of 

 the whole area of the United States where the rainfall 

 is supposed to be sufficiently abundant to produce a 

 crop. 



The deepening of the tillable soil in the manner de- 

 scribed will also be of imense advantage in times of 

 excessive rain. The storage capacity of the soil is 

 vastly increased, and the run-off in a heavy, rainy sea- 

 son thereby diminished. The result will be fewer and 

 less disastrous floods, and moister, less hardened fields. 



THE FALLING WATEB LEVEL. 



In this connection the late Dr. McGee has made in- 

 teresting studies relating to the water line of the soils 

 of this country. According to his investigations the 

 water line of the soil is receding, that is, one has to dig 

 further to find water now than he did fifty or one hun- 



