388 DRY LAND FARMING 



tion may be remedied by man, and also the lack of hu- 

 mus, but. the original texture of the soil and torrential 

 rains cannot be controlled by the character of the rota- 

 tion. 



The shifting of the soils by winds is much influenced 

 by the nature of the soil, by the character of the cultiva- 

 tion and by* the extent to which high winds prevail. 

 Light sandy soils, in which the particles are fine, shift 

 most readily with the winds. After these are the light 

 spongy loams of the prairie. Clay soils are much re- 

 sistant to such lifting. Soils that are much liable to 

 shifting should not be given more cultivation than will 

 absolutely suffice to produce a given result. Where high 

 winds prevail in the spring while crops are being planted, 

 the soil is frequently removed in areas with soils that 

 lift to the extent of leaving the seed entirely bare. 

 The best remedy is a rotation that keeps vegetation of 

 some kind growing on these to the greatest extent prac- 

 ticable, and of a character that will add to the vegetable 

 matter in the soil by the root growth. 



Incidental benefits from rotation. Among the inci- 

 dental benefits which rotation brings are the following: 

 (1) reducing the hazard from crop failure; (2) the more 

 complete character of the maintenance for the house- 

 hold; (3) a wider diversity in the production of live 

 stock, and (4) a salutary influence on markets and mar- 

 keting. 



Rotations may be broadly classed as wide and nar- 

 row. They are wide when they embrace a wide diversity 

 in production, and narrow when they embrace but few 

 lines of production. The wider the rotation, that is, the 

 larger the number of the products grown within a cer- 

 tain limit, the less is the hazard from crop failure. Of 

 course, it would be possible to make diversity so wide 

 that the concentration of the energies would be diffused 

 to the extent of putting the stamp of low attainment on 



