346 DRY FARMING 



prairie is first broken. Such fertility is the result of the 

 decayed organic matter of generations of plant growth, 

 and its presence insures yields of as much as seventy 

 bushels of wheat to the acre and one hundred and forty 

 bushels of oats. Such rich soils will produce profitable 

 crops with light rainfall, as compared with the possi- 

 bilities of poorer land with the same precipitation. No 

 permanent system of agriculture can be maintained 

 which disregards the maintenance of soil fertility 

 through the use of barnyard manure and leguminous 

 crops. It is quite possible to exhaust the fertility and to 

 make barren, lands which, with ordinary good farming 

 practice could be maintained in a splendidly high state 

 of fertility. The ease w T ith which alsike clover, red clover 

 and other clovers can be grown with a nurse crop in 

 Central Alberta, and the natural adaptability of the 

 country for live stock should insure for this district 

 perpetual resources of fertility in the land if any 

 semblance of sane agriculture is followed. 



297. Best Dry Farm Crops. Cereals, legumes and 

 grasses thrive. As to varieties, Marquis wheat, Banner 

 or Victory oats; Mensury, O.A.C. 21 and Barks barley; 

 alsike, red clover, alfalfa in some districts, sweet clover 

 in some districts, and Giant Russian Sunflowers ; timothy 

 Western rye, and brome grass, are all suitable for dif- 

 ferent parts of the country. 



298. Rates of Seeding in Central Alberta. As a general 

 practice rather heavy seeding is advisable for the Park 

 Belt in Alberta. The proper rate to sow, of course, de- 

 pends upon the variety of grain, which involves size of 

 kernel and the kind and condition of the land on which 

 the grain is to be sown. Breaking and summerfallow 

 well supplied with moisture will carry from one-half to 



