134 DRY LAND FARMING 



to justify the statement as to the relative importance of 

 the place that it will occupy among the plows used. 



There is a place also for the lister plow in dry areas. 

 It is a plow which throws the soil out both ways. It is 

 used chiefly in connection with planting corn. It opens 

 furrows only where the corn is to be planted. The seed 

 is drilled in the bottom of the furrow, either by a drill 

 attachment to the lister, or by a separate drill. Corn 

 planted thus deeply will stand drought better than when 

 planted in the ordinary way, but planting it thus, is in 

 some instances attended with some hazard (see p. 279). 



Power to use in plowing. The three kinds of power 

 used in plowing at the present time are: (1) farm ani- 

 mals, especially horses and mules ; (2) steam power, and 

 (3) gasoline power. Electricity generated by mountain 

 streams may yet become a source of power in conduct- 

 ing some of the operations of the farm. 



After the land has been broken, and even when 

 breaking it, horses and mules will be used to a far greater 

 extent in the future, as in the past, by the average farmer, 

 than any other source of power. The more diversified 

 the character of the farming, the greater will be the 

 necessity for using such power, for reasons that will be 

 manifest. The new settler may find it very expensive 

 to use this class of power until he can grow the food 

 called for to maintain the animals that do the work. Ox 

 labor will usually be found cheaper than the labor of 

 horses or mules when breaking land, a fact that has 

 apparently been almost entirely overlooked during recent 

 years. 



Steam traction engines are frequently used in break- 

 ing land, especially when areas large and long are to be 

 broken. Where all the conditions are favorable, as when 

 coal and water do not have to be drawn too far, the steam 

 engine may prove satisfactory when breaking land, but 

 subsequently the great weight of the engine makes it 



