A Rainless Wheat 



gested, no preventive is ever proposed. Decade 

 after decade, year in and year out, drought 

 finds the farmer unprepared, watching sadly his 

 withering crop in a sun-scorched, waterless soil. 

 The Alpha and Omega in the fight against 

 drought is the moisture-saving fallow. With- 

 out it all effort is useless. With it all soil- 

 drought disappears. Suppose we start with the 

 bare moisture-saving fallow and we conserve 

 six inches of rain out of a 12-inch annual rain- 

 fall. We hold the fallow for a year and then 

 sow our wheat in a moist seed-bed. The 

 second season another twelve inches may fall 

 in the field, of which, say, six inches are utilised 

 by the plants, and so, at the end of the second 

 year, instead of one or two possible failures, 

 we reap a 30-bushel ' (12-inch rainfall) crop 

 of wheat. The establishment of a moisture 

 savings bank to pay cash on demand is the 

 fundamental principle in dealing successfully 

 with recurrent seasonal droughts. This prac- 



1 Widtsoe calculates the crop-producing power of rainfall 

 as follows : — . 



One acre inch of water will produce z\ bushels of wheat. 

 Ten acres inches of water will produce 25 bushels of 



wheat. 

 Twenty acres inches of water will produce 50 bushels 



of wheat. 



115 



