The Conquest of the Desert 



Over a period of nineteen years crop and rainfall 

 records have been most carefully kept. There 

 has been only one crop failure, and that was the 

 first, when the land was not yet properly tilled. 

 The heaviest crop of wheat, 28*9 bushels, was 

 harvested in the year 1902, when next to the 

 lowest rainfall occurred, which varied from 

 10*33 inches to 18*46 inches. Moisture-saving 

 fallows followed every crop. 



A second and equally instructive record is 

 furnished by the Government Experimental 

 Farm at Indian Head in Saskatchewan, Canada. 

 Here also reliable records have been kept for 

 the same period — viz. nineteen years. Not a 

 single crop failure is recorded. The highest 

 yield was forty-nine bushels to the acre, the 

 lowest seventeen. During this period the rain- 

 fall varied from 3*9 to 20*22 inches (snowfall 

 not included — varying from 1*3 inches to 2*3 

 inches of water). Here also moisture-saving 

 fallows followed every crop. 



These experiments clearly show that the 

 year of drought need not be feared when the 

 principles of dry-farming are properly carried 

 out. In the conservation of soil-moisture lies 

 the ultimate conquest of drought. And in 

 place of the barren desert, abandoned homes, 



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