100 DRY FARMING 



food materials are being dissipated, weeds and insect 

 pests are becoming more prevalent, and on all except 

 the very richest and deepest types of soil the productive 

 power of the land is going down. 



These results of continuous cropping are not peculiar 

 to Western Canada. One or more of them have been 

 observed in every old agricultural region where the con- 

 tinuous use of one crop or one class of crop has proceed- 

 ed for any length of time. Its ill effects may be seen 

 to-day in the hay fields of old Ontario, in the tobacco 

 fields of Virginia, in the cotton region of the South, in 

 the corn belt of the central States and in the wheat 

 areas of the northwestern States. In the early history of 

 each of these regions the one crop that did best was 

 grown to the exclusion of all others because it gave bet- 

 ter returns. In the end the evils of the system came to 

 outweigh its advantages and a change to suitable rota- 

 tions had to come about. In the pioneering stage of de- 

 velopment in the prairie and park belt region of the 

 West, grain growing is perhaps a necessary and a profit- 

 able practice, even though in some places and in some 

 seasons it is attended by considerable risk. When set- 

 tlers come with little capital they must first make more 

 capital before they can get the equipment necessary to 

 practise a better system. This capital under present 

 economic conditions must come very largely from selling 

 the stored fertility of our cheap land. To this extent the 

 practice of continuous grain growing is justifiable, but 

 after the capital is available for buildings, fences, a 

 water supply and stock, some provision for establishing a 

 less wasteful system should be made. 



148. Difficulties in Establishing Good Rotations in the 

 West. (1) The chief immediate difficulty is the cost of 



