How to Raise Big Crops in Dry Seasons—By D. H. Doane, 
Mis- 
souri 
INSURE NOW AGAINST NEXT SEASON’S DROUTH. NEXT SUMMER MAY BE RAINLESS, BUT YOU CAN SAVE 
YOUR CROPS WITHOUT IRRIGATION IF YOU CAN ADAPT THESE SUGGESTIONS TO YOUR CIRCUMSTANCES 
peer les there may bea scarcity of 
rain during the time that crops are 
growing, it is quite possible to “water” the 
plants by using to the utmost the moisture 
that is in the soil itself, and by handling 
the soil so that it will absorb and hold 
more moisture. 
SAVING MOISTURE IN SPRING 
During the spring, when the soil contains 
the most moisture, there is apt to be the 
most evaporation, but a surface mulch will 
check this, so the great need of making a 
loose surface as early as possible in the 
spring is evident. Never, under any circum- 
stances, work the ground so early that it 
packs or puddles, for this breaks down 
flocculation. But as soon as it can be done 
with safety, establish a mulch. It will even 
pay to do this with a disk or harrow rather 
than wait too long for the ground to get dry 
enough to plow, for the mulch made at this 
time does more, perhaps, than any other in 
conserving soil moisture. To show the 
amount of water that this early mulch saves, 
even in a short time, a test was made on two 
pieces of ground, in every way alike except 
that one was plowed seven days earlier in 
the spring than the other. At the time of 
plowing the second piece, the first contained 
a little more moisture than it had when it was 
plowed, and the plot last plowed had lost 
moisture from the first four feet equal to 1.75 
inches of rainfall. This amounted to about 
one-eighth of all the rain received during the 
growing season. 
CULTIVATE EARLY 
An early mulch is also valuable because 
it keeps the ground moist, and if plowing is 
delayed, the ground will not break up hard 
Fifty days’ growth of corn in a very dry season. 
The land was disKed before plowing, and the dust 
mulch maintained all summer 
r- 
The poor result at harvest time with a field of timothy 
sown on land that broke rough and remained lumpy 
and lumpy. It will require more work to 
get such lumpy ground into proper shape 
for a seed bed than it would to have made 
the mulch with the disk early in the spring. 
Suppose that we have a well prepared 
seed bed and the crop is in the ground; 
further, that we have at our disposal a maxi- 
mum amount of soil moisture due to fall 
plowing or early spring plowing and the 
maintaining of a mulch. Question: How 
to make the greatest use of this water? 
THE WATER AVAILABLE 
The only water that is available to the 
plant is the moisture in the soil surrounding 
each particle and in the smaller openings 
between the soil particles. The young plant 
sends out its roots and from these roots there 
grow minute root hairs. These are single 
celled and come in closest contact with the 
soil, drawing. or absorbing from around the 
particles their film of moisture, which is 
sent up through the roots and stem. In the 
soil we find a movement of the soil moisture, 
due largely to what is absorbed by the plant 
and evaporation. It is this moisture in the 
soil that goes up through the capillary 
tubes to the surface and is lost. 
If these tubes open directly into the air, 
it is obvious that the movement through 
them will be greatly increased, and hence 
the maximum amount of water will be lost. 
Our problem is to break up this direct 
communication between the lower moist soil 
Jayers and the surface. By cultivating the 
surface of the soil, we break the ends of the 
capillary tubes and thus the rising soil mois- 
ture is greatly impeded or held back. How- 
ever, a rain soon packs and runs the soil 
particles together and the tubes are reestab- 
lished. The fact that the soil moisture is 
constantly being brought to the surface and 
lost is the necessity for repeated cultivation. 
Deep cultivation is not necessary. A 
very deep mulch is more expensive to make 
20 
and causes more or less injury to the 
roots. By loosening more earth than is 
necessary, a waste of moisture takes place, 
and the mulch soon becomes quite dry. A 
very shallow mulch allows of the reestablish- 
ing of the capillary openings quite quickly, 
and so necessitates too frequent cultivation 
of the surface. 
A mulch three to four inches deep, renewed 
every six to ten days, is the cheapest to 
maintain and the most satisfactory from 
every standpoint. Make it with a fine tooth 
cultivator, and avoid ridging, for ridged 
cultivation exposes more earth to evapora- 
tion. Whenever a crust forms, it must be 
broken, and in excessively dry seasonsit will 
sometimes pay to use a one-horse scratch 
cultivator after the corn is laid by. As 
the season advances cultivation can be less 
frequent and more shallow. In the closely 
cultivated garden the wheel hoe is the tool to 
use. It saves its cost in water taxes in 
suburban districts. 
WHAT FALL PLOWING DOES 
Ground that is plowed in the fall holds 
a great amount of water from the fall rains and 
winter snows. Plowing should not be done 
until the soil will turn up mellow and loose, 
and then this turned and loosened surface is 
an ideal mulch, acting like a blanket, retard- 
ing and preventing the evaporation of the 
water that it has also been instrumental in 
getting into the soil. Fall plowing may affect 
the soil moisture as late as the middle of May 
even, and as compared with unplowed land 
may hold moisture equal to 1.15 inches of 
rainfall, or, in other words, in the first four 
feet of soil there will be six pounds of moisture 
per cubic foot which would otherwise have 
been lost. 
—— 
Forty-seven days’ growth of cowpeas in an une 
favorable season; the reward of tillage 
