WHAT IS MEANT BY DRY FARMING 9 



It is not so in semi-arid areas. The special methods 

 resorted to in the latter thus to increase the moisture 

 supply include, deepening the tillage by plowing and sub- 

 soiling, packing the soil when plowed, and maintaining 

 on it a dust mulch, and by observing much precision as 

 to timeliness in performing all these operations. They 

 may be practised more or less in humid climates, but in 

 these they are much less needed, and when called for 

 there is much more of latitude as to the time when the 

 work shall be done. In the latter they may be largely 

 omitted or carelessly done, and yet a crop of consider- 

 able value may be reaped. In the former such omission 

 or carelessness would almost certainly be followed by fail- 

 ure. In humid climates an excess of water reaches the 

 soil, insomuch that special means must be resorted to 

 with a view to remove it. These include the making and 

 maintaining of open ditches and the construction of un- 

 derdrains. These are seldom or never wanted in dry 

 areas ; on the other hand, measures are frequently adopted 

 to prevent water from running away should it come in 

 the form of a downpour, an occurrence that is not infre- 

 quent in some parts of the arid country. 



The methods of planting are special with reference 

 to the time of sowing^ the seed, to promptness in sowing 

 the same, to the quantity that is sown, and to the man- 

 ner of sowing. In humid climates, the time covered by 

 the season for sowing or planting is relatively long; 

 in dry areas it is short, as, unless the crop is sown at the 

 right season, the dry weather that invariably comes later 

 may damage or destroy the crop. The seed called for in 

 dry areas is much less than in humid areas to meet the 

 conditions of growth that the moisture supply will best 

 maintain. In dry areas the seed must go down to moist 

 soil or germination is pretty certain to fail, a result 

 which is much less likely in humid areas. 



In humid areas cereal crops are not usually given 



