THE DEVELOPMENT OF DRY FARMING 7 



In "The Beginnings of Agriculture on the Prairies" 

 Dr. E. H. Oliver, who carefully examined the early re- 

 cords of the Selkirk settlers, states as follows : "After a 

 series of trials on the part of the settlers it was found 

 that fall plowing and fallow yielded the best crops. 

 Alexander Ross, who could secure only 52 bushels from 

 10 bushels by the spring plowing of a worn-out field, was 

 able, out of the second field, left fallow for two consecu- 



Fig. 3. — ^Map Shovrtng the Northern Limits of Some Crops and Trees'. 



tive years, during which it .was plowed three times, to 

 secure no less than 280 bushels from 8 bushels sown." It 

 thus appears that while the practice of fallowing was 

 brought forcibly to the attention of the Saskatchewan 

 pioneers after the last Riel Rebellion and that it was not 

 until this time that it became a general practice, yet its 

 value was not unknown in the West as early as the mid- 

 dle of the last century. 



In recent years the United States Department of Agri- 

 culture, the different State Experiment Stations, the Ex- 



