THE CAMPBELL SYSTEM 



applied to the land. On wet, clayey 

 ground it may seriously injure the me- 

 chanical and physical texture of the soil. 

 The story of the origin of the Camp- 

 bell system* of dry-farming is as fol- 

 lows: In the year 1879 Mr. Campbell 

 migrated from New England and settled 

 in what was then known as the Territory 

 of Dakota — since divided into the two 

 States of North and South Dakota. His 

 agricultural career was not startling, 

 merely the hard, grim struggle of the 

 prairie farmer; wheat-growing year in 

 and year out; alternate failure and suc- 

 cess, and always the fear of drought, the 

 blizzard, rust, hail, and frost. At that 

 time it was widely stated that the com- 

 mon failure of the wheat crop was due to 

 the exhaustion of the fertility of the soil 

 by the heavy crops of the first few years, 



^ The following account of this particular method of dry- 

 farming is taken from Campbell's Manual of Scientific 

 Soil Culture, an interesting but diffusely written volume. 



® 147 



