272 DRY FARMING 



227. Late Sown Oats for Soil Protection. Where the 

 conditions are not so serious as to require the use of one 

 or more of these crops, but where some protection of the 

 soil is desirable, a very thin seeding of oats or other 

 cereal may be sown on the fallow in late July or early 

 August and lightly pastured if necessary. These plants, 

 of course, die in winter, but the roots and leaves remain- 

 ing furnish considerable protection against the high 

 winds the following May. An objection to this practice 

 is to be found in places where biennial weeds are pre- 

 valent. If the latter start after the cover crop is 

 sown in July they will, of course, be present in the crop 

 the next year, as no opportunity to kill them in the fall 

 offers itself, the ground being occupied by the cover crop 

 which would be destroyed if cultivated. A volunteer 

 growth of grain or annual weeds in late summer has a 

 similar effect to the sowing of a thin crop of oats, but is 

 subject to the objections pointed out above, viz., the 

 possible presence of biennial weeds that will live over and 

 appear in the next crop. 



228. Stubble as a Soil Protector. Where* soil drifting 

 occurs on fall plowed land in winter or in spring two 

 alternatives present themselves, spring plowing or "stub- 

 bling in." In much of the very dry portions of the 

 plains region, even aside from the question of soil drift- 

 ing, spring plowing is rather to be preferred to fall 

 plowing. Where these conditions obtain, of course, all 

 the advantages are with the spring plowing because 

 such land is protected in winter and generally blows less 

 than fall plowing even in the spring. "Stubbling in" is 

 only advisable on land that is free from weeds and grass 

 and that is in good physical condition. In the dry parts 

 and on new land it is more frequently followed than 



