250 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



ARID AGRICULTURE 



BY 



B. C. BUFFUM, M. S. 



Manager of the Wyoming Plant and Seed Breeding Company, Wor- 



land. Former Professor of Agriculture in the University of 



Wyoming and the Colorado Agricultural College, and 



Director of the Wyoming Agricultural 



Experiment Station. 



\Vo are publishing in this issue the first install- 

 ment of a series of articles by Prof. B. C. Buffum, Man- 

 ager of the Wyoming Plant & Seed Breeding Company, 

 of Worland, Wyoming. 



The author was formerly Professor of Agriculture 

 in the University of Wyoming, and the Colorado Agri- 

 cultural College, and was also Director of the Wyoming 

 Agricultural Experiment Station. 



Prof. Buffum is one of the best known authors 

 on arid agriculture in the world, and has handled this 

 subject in a masterly way in manuscript, from which 

 these articles are reproduced. 



DRY FARMING. 



The term "Dry farming" is often objected to because 

 it states an untruth. No crop can be produced without 

 moisture. Dry farming means farming where the annual 

 precipitation has not been considered sufficient for the 

 production of profitable crops. Indeed, dry farming is 

 usually carried on where the rainfall of one season is not 

 sufficient and the moisture must be saved up for a longer 

 period. 



Perhaps dry farming is as good a combination as can 

 be invented to specify this kind of agriculture. At any 

 rate, no other term has been suggested which covers the 

 practice and is not more objectionable. To designate it as 

 Scientific farming is not good, for farming is an art. Science 

 is as useful, if not as indispensable, to other forms of agri- 

 culture. Scientific farming has been used also to designate 

 the semi-arid cropping along the border of the region of 

 sufficient rainfall. Arid farming is a most excellent term, 

 but it has a broader meaning. As here used arid agriculture 

 covers the whole subject of production from the soil in the 

 slates where aridity prevails. 



The raising of crops without irrigation in a dry country 

 is not new. 



In some parts of our own country, farmers have been 

 self-supporting on farms which receive less than fifteen' inches 

 of rainfall per year, for almost a half century. The general 

 introduction of dry farming to all sections of the west is a 

 new movement. Men of little faith, with much prejudice 

 and less information, have raised their voices in most vigor : 

 ous protest wherever the new system has been introduced. 

 Some of this opposition is righteous indignation over the 

 exaggerations of dry farm enthusiasts and land agents. Re- 

 gardless of such opposition, dry farming has met with such 

 degree of success everywhere that it not only holds its own 

 but is spreading rapidly. Many are quick to claim that the 

 successes are due to excessive moisture, but with the use of 

 the two year conservation method the normal rainfall is 

 repeatedly proven sufficient. It is now safe to predict that 

 the system has come to stay and that a considerable portion 

 of our range land will be made to produce more profitable 

 crops than it does in native grass. Many stockmen are wisely 

 trying cropping on a small scale. It is undoubtedly true that 

 many new settlers who think they already "know all about 

 farming" are destined to fail, but the few will learn how 

 and practice well what they learn. Unless in unsuitable loca- 

 tions, these men will stick. There are enough favorable loca- 

 tions and it is safe to say that the art of dry farming is per- 

 manently established. 



The key to dry farming is the conservation of moisture 

 and making it available to the growing crop. All the opera- 

 tions of soil culture and plant cultivation are carried out 

 with the object of storing moisture in the soil and making 

 use, through the crop, of all that can be saved. The tillage 



which is carried out to perfect the use of the water supply 

 does other things which increase fertility and favor the 

 growth and maturing of plants. 



The principle then, upon which dry farming depends for 

 its success is the catching, storing and saving of enough mois- 

 ture in the soil, to secure a crop. The method by which this 

 is done includes some special attention to all the factors of till- 

 age, as plowing, planting, harrowing and cultivating. So the 

 dry farmer must possess and use advanced information of 

 principles and practice. The system which is generally car- 

 ried out is to conserve two years moisture for one crop. By 

 this system one-half of the land is cropped each year, while 

 the other half is summer tilled. In favorable seasons, or by 

 the use of certain combinations, it is often possible to obtain 

 two crops in three seasons, No doubt there are drouth re- 

 sistant crops which can be made to produce, every year, in 

 favorable locations. After a crop is removed from the soil 

 and the land is again put in condition to absorb all the mois- 

 ture that comes, should there be heavy rains, it may be put 

 into winter grain or again planted to spring crops the follow- 

 ing season. The soil culture and crop treatment followed 

 must be carried out at the right time and in the right way 

 to insure the greatest success. 



One man with a small amount of extra help should be 

 able to farm at least 160 acres by the summer tillage system. 

 How much land can be used to advantage depends on the kind 

 of farming, knowing how to take advantage of conditions, 

 having the proper equipment and other things. We have two 

 opposite conditions in the arid region. The small farm unit 

 is most profitable for pure farming under irrigation. The 

 large farm unit is important to the dry farmer. Every man 

 should have double the land he has in crop and at least as 

 much more for stock pasture. A section of land would se- 

 cure a more certain livelihood than smaller holdings, and 

 half section farms where no water is available for irrigation 

 are as small as should be acquired by the average farmer, 

 over a large section of the dry farm country. 



It does not require any new, complicated or expensive 

 machinery with which to follow out the most successful 

 methods of dry farming. Ordinary tools may be used, but 

 having them is absolute necessary. The bricklayer would 

 make a sorry job of laying up a wall without a trowel. No 

 man should attempt to do any kind of fanning without proper 

 equipment. The dry farmer ought to have the following list 

 of tools : 



Four or six horses. 



Three section drag harrow. 



A two gang plow, twelve or fourteen inch. 



A single walking plow. 



A good disc harrow (14 inch disc best). 



One or two good cultivators. 



An Acme harrow. 



Wagon and hayrack. 



Mowing machine. 



Two sets of harness. 



A Press drill. 



Potato planter and digger. 



Harvesting machine. 



An alfalfa harrow. 



A weeder. 



A float or drag. 



The necessary small tools. 



The best paying dry farms will he those in which a system 

 of cropping and feeding stock is combined. Where the crops 

 are fed to stock cm the farm and the manure and waste re- 

 turned to the land, the loss of soil fertility is so small that 

 we need take no account of it. In fact, while there is an 

 actual loss of plant food from the soil, so much of the natural 

 stored plant food is made available tharthe producing power 

 of the soil continually increases. The plant food elements 

 used up when a crop is fed to hogs is only 15 per cent, and 

 when fed to horses, cattle or sheep it is only four or five 

 per cent of the total. The balance is left in the manure 

 and may be returned to the soil. The manure is a very 

 important item also, to be added to arid soils, as it 

 increases their vegetable mold, making them very retentive 

 of moisture and helping the work of soil bacteria and 

 chemical agents. 



We would suggest also that many of the grains raised 

 for stock food may be cut and fed without threshing, which 

 avoids the extra work of threshing and hauling to market. 



