XXIII 



DRY FARMING 



A SERIOUS problem affects the fanners of this 

 country, not only on that fringe which separates 

 the arid from the wet portions of the community, but 

 also as it affects the farmers who live in the so-called 

 wet zone. I have now had five seasons' experience on 

 my farm in Virginia. The first season was an ideal 

 one respecting the distribution of the rainfall in the 

 spring and summer. There was neither a drought nor 

 an excess of rainfall at any part of the growing period. 

 I had an encouraging success in growing crops which 

 are peculiarly susceptible to the effects of drought, my 

 first oat crop averaging 57 bushels to the acre, which 

 was a revelation to the farmers of my vicinity, who were 

 used to securing only from 20 to 30 bushels of oats per 

 acre. The Indian corn crop was also most excellent, 

 yielding a larger return than any crop that has been 

 grown since. 



During the last four years there has been an ex- 

 cessively dry May. This unseasonal dry weather has 

 shortened every single grass crop, with the one excep- 

 tion of alfalfa. As I have grown alfalfa only one year 

 in the five, I haven't had much benefit from this excep- 

 tion. Clover and timothy have been almost entire 

 failures, not averaging on my farm over three-fourths 

 of a ton per acre. The wheat has been uniformly 



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