230 DRY-FARMING 
the introduction of the header system of harvesting. 
This system of harvesting also makes the practice of 
fallowing much more effective, for it helps maintain 
the organic matter which is drawn upon by the fallow 
seasons. The header should be used wherever prac- 
ticable. The fear has been expressed that the high 
header straw plowed under will make the soil so 
loose as to render proper sowing difficult and also, 
because of the easy circulation of air in the upper 
soil layers, cause a large loss of soil-moisture. This 
fear has been found to be groundless, for wherever 
the header straw has been plowed under, especially 
in connection with fallowing, the soil has been bene- 
fited. 
Rapidity and economy in harvesting are vital fac- 
tors in dry-farming, and new devices are constantly 
being offered to expedite the work. Of recent years 
the combined harvester and thresher has come into 
general use. It is a large header combined with an 
ordinary threshing machine. The grain is headed 
and threshed in one operation and the sacks dropped 
along the path of the machine. The straw is scat- 
tered over the field where it belongs. 
All in all, the question of sowing, care of crop, and 
harvesting may be answered by the methods that 
have been so well developed in countries of abundant 
rainfall, except as new methods may be required to 
offset the deficiency in the rainfall which is the deter- 
mining condition of dry-farming. 
