170 DRY LAND FARMING 



The aim should be to avoid cropping such land the first 

 season, in order that moisture may be stored in the sub- 

 soil. 



The best time to plow land for summer-fallow in 

 dry areas, all things considered, is the autumn, provid- 

 ing the soil is possessed of enough moisture to admit of 

 plowing it deeply. If the soil is very dry it will be 

 better to simply disc it so that water that falls may 

 penetrate it the more readily, leaving the deep plowing 

 that should be given to it until the spring. When plowed 

 in the autumn, it should be disced and harrowed in the 

 early spring. It should then be harrowed with suf- 

 ficient frequency to maintain a dust mulch throughout 

 the season. 



When the ground cannot be plowed or disced in 

 the autumn, it may be disced in the early spring and 

 then plowed later, that is, at a time when the soil has 

 much moisture in it. This, in all or nearly all the Great 

 Plains country, is usually May or June. It should usu- 

 ally be at once packed witTi disc or packer, and a dust 

 mulch formed and maintained on it with the harrow. As 

 a rule summer-fallow land should not be given more 

 than one plowing in dry areas, lest too much moisture 

 should be lost, but to this there may be some exceptions, 

 as when the soil is much liable to pack. The advice 

 sometimes given to plow summer-fallow land a second 

 time and somewhat late in the season would seem to 

 be misleading. 



Cultivating crops in dry areas. In dry areas more 

 of the crops relatively are cultivated than in humid 

 areas, and the cultivation given to them is in many in- 

 stances more prolonged. This arises from the greater 

 necessity which exists for keeping the land in that 

 mechanical condition which will best guard it against 

 vicissitude from the effects of drought. Nearly all the 

 crops grown may be cultivated to some extent and in 



