WINTER GREENS AS A SUBSTITUTE 139 



This means in practice that between every two 

 cultural operations the land is losing a large amount 

 of moisture, and by the time the tare stubble is 

 reduced to a fine tilth (it must be understood that we 

 are dealing with the cultivation of a stubble in 

 summer time) the land is as dry as a bone. Further, 

 working on his ordinary plan, the farmer, if it 

 commenced to rain whilst the various cultural 

 operations were being undertaken, would 

 immediately cease work. 



Working according to dry farming methods, the 

 farmer, under the circumstances outlined, would, 

 however, undertake the cultivation of the tare stubble 

 in sections, ploughing one or two acres and reducing 

 the ploughed sections to a fine tilth as quickly as 

 possible. This means retaining the soil moisture as 

 much as possible. 



Suppose, though, that very dry weather obtains 

 when cultivating the tare stubble on the latter plan ! 

 Then, by the time the cultivation of, say, a quarter 

 has been completed, the remaining three-quarters will 

 be baked so hard no plough would face it. In order 

 to guard against such a contingency, it is necessary 

 to form a soil mulch on the unploughed portion, with 

 a view to reducing moisture evaporation to a 

 minimum. This can be accomplished by roughening 

 the surface of the stubble by passing the cultivator or 

 disc harrow, or both, once or twice over the land 

 before ploughing. The disturbed surface acts like a 

 blanket and reduces the evaporation of moisture from 

 the lower layer of the soil. 



TO CONSERVE SOIL MOISTURE 



After the land has been tilled and the crop sown, 

 there are still other methods of dry farming to be 



