254 POWER AND THE PLOW 



always been found difficult to provide the variety of feed 

 necessary for keeping animals in good working condition, 

 and farmers have always been obliged to keep a surplus of 

 horseflesh in order to make sure of a full quota during rush 

 seasons. With the coming of mechanical power, dry-farming 

 has taken on a new importance. Nowhere has the tractor 

 found a greater range of usefulness than on the grain farms of 

 the semi-arid West. It is particularly the dry-farmers' own 

 and he is rapidly grasping its possibilities. 



From time to time land was wrested from the range and 

 broken up, only to present new and unsuspected difficulties. 

 The very conditions essential to the conservation of moisture 

 on the great plains, that is, a dust mulch and frequent tillage, 

 make it almost impossible to prevent the hillsides from washing 

 and blowing. Summer winds of sixty miles per hour carry 

 the loose earth to bury vegetation and stifle man and beast. 

 According to Prof. E. C. Montgomery, agronomist of the Ne- 

 braska Experiment Station, not over 10 to 20 per cent, 

 of the land between the 99th and 104th meridians should be 

 under cultivation. The remainder is good grazing land, and, 

 used in conjunction with the cultivated' area, will support a 

 large amount of live stock. Modern knowledge holds, there- 

 fore, that the land really adapted to dry-farming is the level 

 land best adapted to traction farming. 



In all dry-farm tillage operations, there are three great prob- 

 lems: the conservation of soil water; the eradication of weeds, 

 and the securing of proper physical conditions in the soil. 

 Of these, the first is by far the most important. By the means 

 employed to secure an adequate supply of soil water, the other 

 ends are largely accomplished. So vital is this need that an 

 enormous premium is placed upon prompt and rapid action at 

 all times when the stock of moisture is endangered. The 

 traction engine works swiftly. It is tireless. It relieves the 

 farmer from rush and anxiety, and he has turned to it eagerly 

 as the lever by which he can control the moisture situation 



