114 DRY LAND FARMING 



that are calculated to facilitate quick and strong root 

 growth in the plants. 



The superior quality of dry farm crops. It may be 

 truthfully said of dry farm crops that: (1) they are richer 

 in dry matter than other crops ; (2) are possessed of rela- 

 tively more nutrition; (3) have a high proportion of 

 grain to the straw, and (4) they are usually higher in 

 palatability. It would be a mistake, therefore, to meas- 

 ure the feeding value of dry farm crops as compared with 

 crops grown in humid areas on the basis of weight or 

 production. 



Other things being equal, the food value of plants 

 increases in the relative proportion of the dry matter 

 which they contain. Widtsoe states that hay grown in 

 humid regions has 12 to 20 per cent, of water, and in arid 

 regions from 5 to 12 per cent. The average water con- 

 tent in wheat as given by Wiley is 10.62 per cent. In 

 some parts of the dry area it is not more than 8 to 9 

 per cent. The less plentiful the water supply during 

 growth, the higher will be the percentage of the dry mat- 

 ter in the plants produced. 



The food nutrients in plants grown in dry areas are 

 considerably more relatively than in the same plants 

 grown in humid areas. More particularly is this true 

 of the nitrogen content. Experiments conducted in Hol- 

 land found that in a soil that contained 30 per cent, of 

 water throughout the growing season, the protein per- 

 centage in oats grown in the same was but 5.6 per cent., 

 while the protein percentage in oats grown in a soil 

 that contained but 10 per cent, of water during the same 

 period was 10.6 per cent. Hard spring wheat grown in 

 Utah has about 4 per cent, more protein than the same 

 variety grown in the middle west. The reasons for such 

 increase in the protein content in dry areas rest mainly 

 on general climatic conditions, including a more or less 

 limited water supply. Protein is most abundant in plants 



