LESSONS FROM EXPERIENCE 349 



THE SUMMERF ALLOW IN SOUTHERN ALBERTA 



By James Murray, B.S.A., Superintendent of Farms, 

 Noble Foundation Limited, Nobleford, Alberta. 



302. Climate. — The climate of Southern Alberta is 

 characterized by light rainfall, — about fifteen inches, — 

 and the prevalence of chinook winds which blow inter- 

 mittently throughout the year. The chinook frequently 

 attains the proportions of a galej in winter it carries 

 away a heavy snowfall in a few hours, and in spring and 

 summer, and also frequently in winter, it not only dries 

 out the surface soil very rapidly, but carries away in 

 dust storms any soil in condition to blow readily. On 

 account of these conditions — light precipitation and 

 heavy winds, — ^the Southern Alberta farmer on dry land 

 must keep always before him the need of conserving as 

 much as possible of the moisture and of so working his 

 land that it does not readily blow. 



303. A Fallow Considered Necessary. — The general 

 practice on* the farms of the Noble Foundation Limited 

 is to summerfallow one half of the land each year. This 

 is departed from more or less every year, as feed oats is 

 frequently grown on land that was in crop the previous 

 year; but only in very favorable seasons does the yield 

 approach that from summerfallow. In dry seasons the 

 yield from such land is very low. Over a series of years 

 the further we depart from the method of fallowing one 

 half each year the less satisfactory are the results. With 

 most of the crop grown on summerfallow a fair return 

 is secured even in a poor year, and an excellent crop in 

 a good year. 



304. Summerfallow to Control Weeds. — The method 

 followed in summerfallowing is planned to control weeds 



