DRY-FARMING 



sion. For the sake of uniformity it 

 would be well if all experiment stations, 

 farmers' societies, and the agricultural 

 press in general would agree to speak of 

 "dry-farming" and "dry-land agri- 

 culture." Dry-farming may be defined 

 as the conservation of soil moisture dur- 

 ing long periods of dry weather by means 

 of tillage, together with the growth of 

 drought-resistant plants. It is not, of 

 course, farming without moisture, for 

 that would be clearly impossible. The 

 phrase is now widely and loosely applied 

 to a particular form of farming in all 

 places where the normal rainfall ranges 

 from zero to 30 inches per annum. That 

 is to say, a farmer in a certain district of 

 Utah might speak of dry-farming with 9 

 inches of rain; while his neighbor in eas- 

 tern Nebraska with a rainfall of 29 inches 

 might equally well propose to conserve 

 his surplus moisture by proper tillage 

 6 



