CHAPTER XI 
SOWING AND HARVESTING 
THE careful application of the principles of soil 
treatment discussed in the preceding chapters will 
leave the soil in good condition for sowing, either in 
the fall or spring. Nevertheless, though proper dry- 
farming insures a first-class seed-bed, the problem of 
sowing is one of the most difficult in the successful 
production of crops without irrigation. This is 
chiefly due to the difficulty of choosing, under some- 
what rainless conditions, a time for sowing that will 
insure rapid and complete germination and the es- 
tablishment of a root system capable of producing 
good plants. In some respects fewer definite, reliable 
principles can be laid down concerning sowing than 
any other principle of important application in the 
practice of dry-farming. The experience of the last 
fifteen years has taught that the occasional failures 
to which even good dry-farmers have been subjected 
have been caused almost.-wholly by uncontrollable 
unfavorable conditions prevailing at the time of 
sowing. 
Conditions of germination 
Three conditions determine germination: (1) heat, 
(2) oxygen, and (3) water. Unless these three con- 
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