SUNSHINE FARMING 



equivalent to 12 inches of rainfall must pass 

 up through the stalks of an ordinary wheat, 

 rye, oats, or grass crop out into the air in 

 order to mature the plants 12 inches, even 

 if none evaporates in vain, and more than 

 this through corn. 



When good crops are ripened under less 

 than 12 inches of rain, the capillary action 

 made possible by the proper preparation of 

 the land, or capillarism helped by such 

 pressure as lifts water in some artesian wells, 

 has been able to draw up subterranean wa- 

 ters within reach of the plant roots. This 

 explanation is reasonable, as the operation 

 described does doubtless go on in very many 

 fields. In other words, it is possible that a 

 rank crop requiring 12 inches may grow 

 under a precipitation of but seven. 



It does not follow, however, that dry cul- 

 ture can be triumphantly practiced in all 

 places of but y-inch precipitation. Whether 

 it will do in such a locality will depend on 

 the presence not too far underground of 

 Dakota sandstone or other aqueous rock. 

 Such aqueous substrata are near enough to 



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