216 DRY-FARMING 
temperature high enough for plant growth, fall sow- 
ing is also a general practice. Wherever the condi- 
tions are favorable, fall sowing should be practiced, 
for it is in harmony with the best principles of wattr 
conservation. Even in districts where the precipita- 
tion comes chiefly in the summer, it may be found 
that fall sowing, after all, is preferable. 
The right time to sow in the fall can be fixed only 
with great difficulty, for so much depends upon the 
climatic conditions. In fact the practice varies in 
accordance with differences in fall precipitation 
and early fall frosts. Where numerous fall rains 
maintain the soil in a fairly moist condition and the 
temperature is not too low, the problem is compara- 
tively simple. In such districts, for latitudes repre- 
sented by the dry-farm sections of the United 
States, a good time for fall planting is ordinarily 
from the first of September to the middle of October. 
If sown much earlier in such districts, the growth is 
likely to be too rank and subject to dangerous injury 
by frosts, and as suggested by Farrell the very large 
development of the root system in the fall may 
cause, the following summer, a dangerously large 
growth of foliage; that is, the crop may run to 
straw at the expense of the grain. If sown much 
later, the chances are that the crop will not possess 
sufficient vitality to withstand the cold of late fall 
and winter. In localities where the late summer and 
the early fall are rainless, it is much more difficult to 
