DRY-FARMING 



three or four years, the grain being 

 "stubbled in" on the ground of last year's 

 crop ; or the land was prepared for seed- 

 ing simply by means of the disc harrow. 

 At first this system of farming yielded 

 fairly successful returns, but a series of 

 dry years culminating in the disastrous 

 drought of 1894 taught the farmers a 

 bitter lesson, and, unfortunately, served 

 to depopulate a large part of the Great 

 Plains region. It is commonly said that 

 the failure of these pioneer farmers was 

 owing to the exhaustion of soil fertility; 

 but in the opinion of the writer it was 

 due far more to a lack of moisture. If 

 these early settlers had known how to till 

 their fields in order to conserve the maxi- 

 mum amount of soil water, it is more 

 than probable that, even with continuous 

 cropping to wheat, the soil-germs, grow- 

 ing in a moist, mellow seed-bed, would 

 have supplied the necessary plant-foods 

 168 



