MANAGEMENT OF SPECIAL SOILS 271 



son. In those areas where drifting is quite common the 

 only fields that can be depended upon to wholly resist the 

 wind action, under severe conditions, are those that are 

 protected by a crop or by unplowed stubble. 



225. Perennials as Protecting Crops. The best pro- 

 tecting crops, although often the least profitable, are the 

 perennials. Among these the grasses are to be preferred, 

 although alfalfa and sweet clover (a biennal) are equal- 

 ly as good soil protectors. It is very seldom that crops 

 sown on land broken up out of sod suffer from soil drift- 

 ing. In 1919 such land produced almost an average 

 yield at Saskatoon while many crops on fallow and fall 

 and spring plowing were partial or complete failures as 

 a result of high winds and dry w r eather. 



226. Winter Rye Lessens Drifting. Another commonly 

 grown crop but one less sure of furnishing the protec- 

 tion needed is winter rye. This crop, like the perennials 

 mentioned, may be sown in or following the rainy sea- 

 son when the soil seldom blows, and by covering the 

 ground in May is, like the others, likely to lessen or en- 

 tirely prevent any blowing. The question of growing 

 winter rye is one that deserves consideration by all 

 farmers living in soil drifting areas. Where drifting 

 interferes with wheat raising to such an extent as to 

 make it unprofitable, winter rye, in many cases, may be 

 substituted to advantage. As a commercial crop, how- 

 ever, rye generally sells for twenty-five to thirty per cent, 

 less than wheat, so that where the latter can be satis- 

 factorily grown rye cannot compete with it as a profitable 

 crop. The illustration (Fig. 92) shows very convincingly 

 the relative resistance to drifting, of land protected by 

 winter rye as compared with that seeded to oats, a spring 

 sown crop. 



