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THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



SOLVING THE DRY-FARMING PROBLEM. 



By Raymond Olney, Traction Farming Expert, 



Member American Society Agricultural 



Engineers. 



In certain sections of the country where the 

 rainfall is only a few inches the practice of dry- 

 farming is next to impossible without the use of 

 mechanical power. In these regions the farm trac- 

 tor has made it possible for the farmer to grow suc- 

 cessful crops where he was unable to do so before. 

 Many have found by actual experience that the trac- 

 tor holds the key to the situation when it comes 

 to producing surer and better crops in dry-land 

 agriculture. 



The farm tractor, particularly the oil-burning 

 engine, has solved many farm problems in spite of 

 the short period of its development. To the farmer 

 on the semi-arid plains it is simply a question of a 



25 H. P. Rumely Oil-Pull Tractor pulling 4 Spaulding deep Tilling 

 machines and drag. 



crop or no crop. If he has the power and the neces- 

 sary equipment, he is master of the elements. 



One of our greatest natural resources is soil 

 moisture. To conserve every ounce of rainfall re- 

 sults in the biggest crop yields. Dry-farming con- 

 ditions are such that when work is needed it must 

 be done very rapidly. Here lies the advantages of 

 using traction power. It enables the farmer to do 

 his work speedily and keep the upper hand of un- 

 favorable conditions. It makes possible effective 

 conservation of moisture. 



There are sections of the country that are con- 

 sidered too dry for agricultural purposes without 

 the aid of irrigation. The fact is that it is not so 

 much the lack of rainfall as it is the condition of the 

 soil. The soil is of such a nature that rain cannot 

 penetrate it. The consequence is that it runs off 

 and its usefulness is lost. It makes little difference 

 whether the rainfall is 10 or 20 inches. If the soil 

 is not properly prepared to absorb and hold it, it 

 cannot be expected that a crop can be grown. 



The solution in such a case, as it is in many 

 others in dry-farming practice, is deep tilling. It 

 not only gives an excellent, large seed bed for the 



roots of the plants, by offering them a larger feed- 

 ing ground to grow in, but also provides a larger 

 reservoir for the storage of water. This must be 

 done so that plants will receive the necessary mois- 

 ture during periods when there is a scarcity of rain- 

 fall. 



There are times when big storms come and if 

 the soil is not in condition if there is no moisture 

 reservoir there will be an enormous amount of 

 surface water which will run off and not penetrate 

 the soil, when with proper tillage it might have 

 been saved. In some instances deep plowing has 

 proved a safeguard from heavy damage by flooding. 

 This is due to the fact that the land absorbed the 

 rainfall and prevented harm being done by the 

 excessive surface water. 



But deep plowing, as pointed out before, takes 

 a large amount of power. Hauling deep-tillage ma- 

 chines 10 to 15 inches deep is pure drudgery for 

 horses and mules. While it is possible to plow deep 

 with animal power it is not practical. Especially 

 is this true in dry-farming sections where plowing 

 must be done to a large extent in the hottest kind 

 of weather. Horses are unable to stand the high 

 temperature and they soon become exhausted. Be- 

 sides large teams are necessary for hauling the ma- 

 chines and they are also very inefficient and diffi- 

 cult to manage. 



The tractor, on the other hand, has unlimited 

 capacity and endurance. It works best in the hot- 

 test weather and, furthermore, it is tireless. One 

 man can handle it as easily as he can a team of 

 horses. It enables the farmer to prepare the seed 

 bed rapidly and to conserve moisture with very 

 little loss, and it also insures larger crops. 



The great value of deep plowing was very well 

 shown by a demonstration made in Colorado by 

 two oil-pull tractors, manufactured by the M. 

 Rumely Company, La Porte, Indiana, hauling 

 Spaulding deep-tilling machines. It was given in 

 the hardest soil in Eastern Colorado dry adobe 

 and original soil. It had been tramped under foot 

 for ages by wild buffalo, antelope and domestic 

 animals so that it was packed so hard that in turn- 

 ing the furrow the first three or four inches resem- 

 bled shale. It was so very dry that great clouds 

 of dust were raised by the action of the plows. 



The previous experience by one of the best 

 authorities in dry-farming and deep tillage, Mr. 

 E. R. Parsons, had proved that large crops could be ob- 

 tained in this soil simply by deep plowing and without 

 the aid of irrigation. His methods had secured 

 successful crops for him when others had made 

 dismal failures. The whole problem seemed to lie 

 in providing a sufficiently large reservoir to absorb 

 and retain as much of the rainfall as could be done. 



Plowing started with a 15-tractive, 30-brake 

 h. p. oil-pull tractor, pulling three Spaulding deep- 

 tilling machines. It was a hard, difficult proposi- 

 tion, but the tractor never balked or slackened its 

 pace. It kept on cutting and turning that hard 

 adobe sod at an average rate of six acres per day. 

 The machines maintained a depth of fourteen 

 inches at all times. In all, it plowed eighty acres, 

 or an equivalent of traveling 470 miles. 



Soon after the demonstration began a big storm 

 came up and there was so much rain that it was 



