CHAPTER X. 

 THE SUMMER FALLOW 



Summerfallow is the name given to that portion of the 

 farm which is left uncropped for a season and the soil 

 managed in such a way that a surplus supply of moist- 

 ure may be stored in it. Whatever the future of this 

 practice may be, summerfallowing is at the present 

 time at least the most fundamental practice of dry farm- 

 ing in the northern great plains area. Nor are its ad- 

 vantages limited to the storage and conservation of soil 

 moisture. The fallow may be used to kill weeds and 

 cause the decay of stubble and manure when plowed 

 under; it results in the development of available plant 

 food; and on the pioneer grain farm it is at the present 

 time practically an economic necessity since without the 

 fallow it would be impossible to satisfactorily prepare 

 all the land for a crop in our short autumn and spring 

 seasons. 



The summerfallow is at present an established practice 

 in all the drier parts of the Prairie Provinces. The 

 objections to it are many and they will no doubt force 

 a readjustment of our present system but until some 

 modification of it is found to be profitable every grain 

 grower in that portion of the open plains having less 

 than sixteen inches of precipitation should plan to fallow 

 a half, a third or a fourth of his land every year. 



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