34 DRY FARMING 



melting the snows of winter, the warm dry wind sucks 

 up the moisture very rapidly. The dry atmosphere is, 

 however, not always a misfortune. This is one of the 

 causes of high quality in wheat and also one of the chief 

 causes of the relatively small damage from rust and 

 other fungous diseases in the dry parts of the West. 

 Carleton,* referring to this point, states that "A heavy 

 stand of wheat in humid districts is favorable to rust. 

 Under these conditions it should be noted that the 

 atmospheric humidity is the influencing factor 



"In this district (the spring wheat belt of Canada and 

 the United States) because of the deep black soil and 

 dry, hot summers, there is grown the highest grade of 

 common spring wheat in the world excepting the spring 

 wheats of the middle Volga district of Russia, which are 

 very similar." 



26. Long Hours of Sunlight in the Growing Season. 



Light is essential for plant growth. Without it plants 

 cannot manufacture their food. Man cannot control the 

 light except in a negative way by preventing weeds and 

 other obstacles shading useful plants. Two phases of 

 this question are, however, very interesting. The first is 

 the length of the day in summer in northern latitudes, 

 and the second the relative lack of clouds in this climate. 



The number of possible hours of sunshine daily dur- 

 ing June, July and August at various places is indi- 

 cated on the sunshine map. The long days of summer 

 and the relative lack of cloudiness in Western Canada 

 encourages rapid growth and makes possible the matur- 

 ing of crops in much less time than people of southern 



In "The Small Grains", bv Carleton. 



