DRY-FARMING 



tap-root to strike down and fully de- 

 velop. Again, you can often get a good 

 idea of the true nature of the subsoil by 

 noticing how deep ants and burrowing 

 animals go and what kind of soil they 

 bring up. Perhaps a single case which 

 Professor Hilgard mentioned to the 

 writer will make this clear. Some time 

 ago, in the State of Washington, Hil- 

 gard noticed a tall luscious grass grow- 

 ing in a particularly arid region. He 

 could not understand how the grass hap- 

 pened to thrive there until he observed 

 that it invariably grew in the burrows of 

 badgers. The badgers had subsoiled the 

 land and so made a natural soil reservoir 

 which was moist enough for that par- 

 ticular species of grass. Here the bad- 

 gers ^ proved a true beacon to the farmers 

 who afterwards went in and possessed the 



^ In South Africa the presence of ant-hills is usually a 

 reliable sigu of good dry-farming country. 



44 



