THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



431 



to a large extent and also produce less leanness to pump 

 moisture from the soil. The following seed table will be 

 found very useful for dry farming. The amounts of seed 

 given are based on the very best condition of seed bed, 

 planting at the right time and with a drill which does the 



"('Mining Through the Rye." The Wyoming State Dry Farm Com- 

 mission. 



work in the best possible manner. The farmer whose 

 seed bed is in poor tilth or dry, or who plants late or with 

 poor methods, should increase the amounts of seed recom- 

 mended by from 30 per cent to 100 per cent. 



Minimum 

 Seed per 



Acre 

 CROP. Remarks. Pounds. 



Alfalfa For hay, drilled 10 



Alfalfa For hay, broadcast 25 



Alfalfa For seed in wide rows 2 



Canada Field Peas (Small) 40 



Field Peas (Large varieties) 50 



Sand Vetch 20 



Millet Siberian 8 



Millet Common or German 5 



Proso Drouth-resisting Broom 



Corn Millet G 



Brome Grass 20 



Meadow Fescue 20 



Western Wheat Grass 13 



Slender Wheat Grass 20 



Barley For threshed grain 35 



Barley Beardless for feed 50 



Oats For grain 35 



Oats For hay 60 



Rve Winter or Spring 30 



Winter Wheat Drilled 30 



Durum Spring Wheat Drilled 40 



Polish Wheat For feed 60 



Emmer or Spelt For feed 40 



Buckwheat 20 



Flax For seed 25 



Flax For fiber 50 



Broom Corn ~ 



Field Beans (Small) 20 



Corn In hills and thin 4 



Corn In drills 7 



Sweet Corn For fodder 10 



Sorghum For seed 8 



Sorghum For fodder 20 



Kafir Corn 4 



Turnips 2 



Carrots 3 



Mangel Wurzel or Stock Beets K 



Sugar Beets To be thinned 20 



The best seed, regardless of cost is the most profit- 

 able. The cost of good seed is small compared with the 

 value of the resulting crop. The difference in the price 

 of first and second grade seed does not make a great 



difference in the total cost per acre. Like produces like. 

 The best seed invariably results in the best crop. It is 

 especially important that the dry farmer plant thoroughly 

 clean seed that is free from weeds. We know of nothing 

 that causes greater loss than the presence of worthless 

 weeds. They rob the soil of its moisture and use plant 

 food that belongs to the crop. 



Without exception every student of western farming 

 recommends the use of seed that is acclimated or that has 

 been grown under the same conditions as those where they 

 are to be planted, or as near these conditions as is pos- 

 sible to obtain. This subject of the breeding of varieties 

 suitable to our western conditions and the adaptation of 

 plants to soil and climate is one of the most important 

 with which we have to deal. As a rule seeds raised under 

 irrigation or in a humid climate are not good seeds for 

 dry farming. Good seed cannot be produced as cheaply 

 or sold for the same price that common bulk crops bring. 

 With the breeding work that is now inaugurated in the 

 arid region it will be but a few years before new and im- 

 proved varieties of farm seeds will be made available. 

 This work cannot fail to make our western farming more 

 successful and profitable. 



The principal implements for cultivating grain are 

 the drag harrow and the weeder. When the grain is too 

 high to be harrowed a weeder may then be used to much 

 advantage. Sometimes the weeder may do the best work 

 from the first. To do the work properly the harrow teeth 

 must be kept sharp and slanted. Good work cannot be 

 done with dull or stubbed-off teeth. Always harrow 

 crossways of the drill marks if possible to do so. It often 

 looks as though great injury were being done by harrow- 

 ing small grain, but it never fails to turn out beneficially. 

 Winter wheat should be harrowed one or more times in 

 the spring going over twice may be necessary to do effec- 

 tive work. Small grains or even corn may be harrowed 

 until six or seven inches high. The harrow is a good 

 thing to run over the potato field or field peas just when 

 they are coming up. 



Of course the harvest may be carried on by ordinary 

 methods, but the soil should not be neglected at this time. 

 Where our rainfall comes during the summer, discing the 

 stubble after harvesting grain is important. After harvest- 

 ing potatoes or sugar beets the drag harrow should be 

 used to break up the lumps and re-establish the soil mulch. 

 Barley or other grains that can be used for feed without 

 threshing should be harvested when in the stiff dough. 

 This prevents, in a measure, re-seeding the ground through 

 the grain shattering out, for in this country practically 

 all the ripe grain which drops on the ground in the fall 

 comes up the next spring as .a volunteer crop. If the grain 

 can be fed without threshing it is marketed in the best 

 possible way from the farm and saves the cost of thresh- 

 ing and handling. 



Pure grain farming is not the best type of permanent 

 argriculture. On suitable soils, however, both with and 

 without the summer-fallow system, farmers have practiced 

 grain farming on the same soils for more than thirty years in 

 parts of the West and they have become thrifty and even 

 wealthy doing so! There is no doubt but such soil rob- 

 bery will result in depletion in time, but the extensive 

 grain farmer gives little or no thought to the building up 

 of a productive farm for future generations. He often 

 expects his children to enter the profession or move to 

 some other country for their livelihood. With the prac- 

 tice of growing a single crop year after year, continued 

 long enough, at the same time adding nothing in plant 

 food, there are few soils upon which, sooner or later, 

 farming will not become unprofitable. Confining the soil 

 to one crop induces the accumulation of insects and plant 

 diseases, which are peculiar to that crop, and when the 

 devastation arrives it hits quick and hard. When grain 

 farming is the principal aim in any region, the best prac- 

 tice in addition to the resting of the soil alternate seasons, 

 is to adopt a system of crop rotation which will add 

 fertility. 



Rotation of crops is not so necessary where land is 

 summer tilled every other year as it is to keep up soil 

 fertility on lands that produce annual crops. However, a 

 regular system of rotation will pay on all dry farms. The 

 principal aim in a rotation for arid lands, is to keep up 

 (Continued en page 478.) 



