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not have cost over thirty cents an acre, added fifteen 

 bushels per acre to his yield of corn. James Armstrong, 

 of Phelps county, double-disked his ground early in the 

 spring, then cultivated his corn once more than his neigh- 

 bors, at a total cost not exceeding sixty cents an acre, 

 and got twenty bushels of corn per acre for his extra 

 labor. This may seem like an exaggeration, but the com- 

 parison was made between this field and an adjoining 

 field on his own farm not thus treated, as well as a com- 

 parison with the crops of his neighbors. Dozens of sim- 

 ilar illustrations could be given of the immense value of 

 this principle; If the work is done at the right time re- 

 sults are great. 



GREATEST ELEMENT OF WASTE. 



The careful tiller of the soil will, then, bear in mind a* 

 all times the fact that evaporation is the greatest element 

 in the waste of water, that evaporation depends upon the 

 condition of the soil surface and the atmosphere, that it 

 is always immediately following a rain or an irrigation 

 when the surface is compact and moist that evaporation 

 is most rapid, that evaporation is comparitively slow 

 from a broken and dry surface, and that by checking evap- 

 oration the farmer literally forces the water down into 

 his natural store house or reservoir for water beneath 

 the surface. 



Cultivation of the surface of the soil is not alone to 

 kill weeds or loosen the soil to admit the air but it is for 

 the purpose of stopping the waste of water through evap- 

 oration. 



Evidence from all over the semi-arid west proves con- 

 clusively that if every farmer had fully understood the 

 theory and principles of conserving the soil water by proper 

 cultivation, there would have been no short crop of corn 



