, 3 6 AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



C) WINDS 1 

 BY L. E. HAZEN 



The long-continued droughts in the semiarid belts are no more 

 of a proposition than the excessive winds. As a rule, such crops as 

 wheat, barley, rye, sorghum, cowpeas, and Kafir corn will withstand 

 a drought of six weeks to two months fairly well if there is no wind. 

 Alfalfa will grow on 1 1 per cent of water in the first 3 feet, retaining 

 a rich green color; two hours of 40-mile wind will stop all growth and 

 cause a yellow tinge to appear on the leaves with 1 8 to 20 per cent of 

 water in the soil and an air temperature of not over 80 F. 



The high evaporation of moisture from the soil in the western 

 country is due largely to the high velocity of the wind. The cultiva- 

 tion necessary to store moisture and produce the perfect tilth required 

 for the best growth of the crop favors the blowing of soils. There has 

 been much written to explain how to establish a soil mulch, but so far 

 there is little information as to how to keep it. A soil mulch will 

 check evaporation, but the first stiff wind will blow the mulch away. 

 The clean-cultivated land at the Hays, Kansas, Experiment Station 

 blows very badly each spring, as the records show; land which is 

 lightly tilled does not suffer much. 



The following notes are taken from the records of the Station: 



March i, 1905. During the three day's high winds this whole field 

 blowed badly and considerable wheat is covered because of the flying dirt par- 

 ticles having lodged behind sorghum stalks and in low places. Wheat plants 

 appear rather sickly, though the part in the ground is alive and thrifty. 



April 24, 1906. The high wind of today did much damage to all spring 

 dope that were above ground, and the barley and spring wheat east of the 

 road were affected most, because of the constant drifting of particles from 

 the wheat fields on the west side of the road. 



From another field, kept in clean cultivation throughout the 

 season, the dust blew in clouds and drifted so thickly in the adjoining 

 field as to kill weeds and grass in places. The influence of wind-breaks 

 on the velocity of the wind is but local. We must depend upon some 

 other method of preventing the loss of soil than by foresting this great 

 area of land which we seek to put under the plow. 



'Adapted from "Dry-Land Agriculture," Bulletin 130, Bureau of Plant In- 

 dustry, Untied Slates Department of Agriculture, pp. 51-53. The last two sen- 

 tences and the firat two in the second paragraph are borrowed from a paper by 

 E. A. Burnett, pp, 10-11, of the same bulletin. 



