124 DRY-FARMING 



ing is always to increase the soil-moisture content. 

 In dry-farming, water is the critical factor, and any 

 practice that helps to conserve water should be 

 adopted. For that reason, fallowing, which gathers 

 soil-moisture, should be strongly advocated. In 

 Chapter IX another important value of the fallow 

 will be discussed. 



In view of the discussion in this chapter it is easily 

 understood why students of s(jil-moisture have not 

 foimd a material increase in soil-moisture due to 

 fallowing. Usually such investigations have been 

 made to shallow depths which already were fairly 

 well filled with UKjisture. Water falling upon such 

 soils would sink be}'ond the dejjth reached by the 

 soil augers, and it became impossible to judge 

 accurately of the moisture-storing advantage of the 

 fallow. A critical analysis of the literature on this 

 subject will rc^'oal the weakness of most experiments 

 in this respect. 



It may be mentioned here that the only falloAV 

 that should be practiced by the dry-farmer is the 

 clean fallow. Water storage is manifestly impos- 

 sible when crops are growing upon a soil. A healthy 

 crop of sagebrush, sunfl(iwers, or other weeds con- 

 sumes as much water as a first-class stand of corn, 

 wheat, or potatoes. Weeds should be abhorred by 

 the farmer. A weedy falloAV is a sure forerunner of 

 a crop failure. How to maintain a good fallow is 

 discussed in Cha]:)tcr VIIT, under the head of Culti- 



