SUMMER FALLOWING 197 
Idaho, Colorado, New Mexico, North. Dakota, Ne- 
braska, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Russia, Turkey, the 
Transvaal, Brazil, and Australia. Each of these many 
districts was represented by one to ten or more 
representatives. The only state to declare somewhat 
vigorously against it was from the Great Plains area, 
and a warning voice was heard from the United States 
Department of Agriculture. The recorded practical 
experience of the farmers over the whole of the dry- 
farm territory of the United States leads to the con- 
viction that fallowing must be accepted as a practice 
which resulted in successful dry-farming. Further, 
the experimental leaders in the dry-farm movement, 
whether working under private, state, or governmental 
direction, are, with very few exceptions, strongly in 
favor of deep fall plowing and clean summer fallow- 
ing as parts of the dry-farm system. 
The chief reluctance to accept clean summer fal- 
lowing as a principle of dry-farming appears chiefly 
among students of the Great Plains area. Even there 
it is admitted by all that a wheat crop following a 
fallow year is larger and better than one following 
wheat. There seem, however, to be two serious rea- 
sons for objecting to it. First, a fear that a clean 
summer fallow, practiced every second, third, or 
fourth year, will cause a large diminution of the or- 
ganic matter in the soil, resulting finally in complete 
crop failure; and second, a belief that a hoed crop, 
like corn or potatoes, exerts the same beneficial effect: 
