312 



THE GARDEN AND FIELD. 



December, 1913 



Dry - P»rmit\s- 



Dr. William IVIacDonald, of the 

 I nion Department of Agriculture, 

 one of the first authorities on D'rv 

 Farming contributes an article on 

 the subject to The Nineteenth Cen- 

 tury imder the heading " Rainless 

 Wheat " from which we extract 

 the following : — 



The last romance of agriculture, 

 the most daring of its many tri- 

 umphs, is the Conquest of the Des- 

 ert. Pictured in the winsome song 

 of the Psalmist, the sonorous 

 prose of the Hebrew prophet, and 

 visioned in the pages of a modern 

 seer, it has remained for the lat- 

 est science, the deep-set sha're, and 

 the diligent harrow to complete 

 the ancient prophecv and to pro- 

 duce a harvest of corn from a 

 rainless land. 



To imderstand what has been 

 accomplished, it will be^ necessary 

 to sketch the rise and progress ol 

 this new branch of agricultural 

 science known as dry-farming. In 

 the study of dry farming we are 

 led at the outsiet to ask what is 

 the real meaning of the term 

 " Desert." The dictionary defines 

 it as a " barren tract incapable of 

 supporting population, as the yast 

 sand plains of Asia and Africa 

 which are destitute of moisture and! 

 vegetation." Such a definition is 

 apt to mislead us, for what is 

 now a desert region may be trans- 

 formed in a few years into a coun- 

 try of fertile fields capable of sus- 

 taining a large population. The 

 most striking ilhustration of this 

 fact is to be found in America. 

 Spread out an old map of the 

 United States of less than fifty 

 years ago, and you will .see that 

 vast region marked " The great 

 American Desert " stretching from 

 the Missourie to the Rockies. What, 

 has happened ? In the space of a 

 single generation, an army of 

 settlers has invaded this country, 

 and six trans-continental railroads 

 bring the comforts of civilisation 



to the farmer's door. Next, turn- 

 ing to the British Bmpire, we note 

 that desert region of Australia so 

 (juaintly called the " Ne.er- Never- 

 Country," on the fringe of which 

 farmers even now are settling. 

 .\nd, coming to South Africa, we 

 mark out the Kalahari Desert, or, 

 as it is termed in the native 

 tongue, the " Great Thirst X,and." 

 Even there the white flag of the 

 surveyor can be seen staking out 

 a fiftv-thousand-acre farm' from 

 the silt-laden waters of the Orange 

 River to the restless crest of a 

 l^arren, blood-red sand dune. The 

 lesson, of all this is plain. In our 

 dry and desert lands we possess a 

 {priceless heritage ; and if there are 

 any who .sti'll think that there are 

 no mone good farms to be had in 

 our oversea Dominions you may re-i 

 mind them of that saying of 

 Kmerson : " The last lands are the 

 best lands. It needs science and 

 great numbers to cultivate the 

 best lands and in the best man- 

 ner." 



— What is Dry Farming. — 



At a recent lecture on " South 

 Africa," delivered by the writer 

 li'sfore the Royal Colonial Institute 

 the question was asked : " W^hat is 

 dry farming ? " Dry farming may 

 be defined as the conservation of 

 soU-moisture during long periods 

 of dry weather by means of till- 

 age, together with the growth of 

 drought resistant plants. Dty 

 farming differs from ordinary farm^ 

 ing in that the chief object of the 

 dry-farmer is to prepare his lands 

 to recieive and retain as much rain 

 as possible. This is accomplished 

 by the use of moisture-saving fal- 

 lows. 



" Dry farming " is a new term 

 which was first used a few years 

 ago in Western Am^erica. In Utah 

 and some other parts of the United 

 States it is called " arid farm ng." 

 Still another term is " scientific 

 soil culture." For the sake of 

 uniformity, all experiment sta- 

 tions, agricultural societies and 



the rural Press would do well to 

 speak of dry farming and dry-land 

 agriculture. 



It is sometimes said that dry- 

 farming is a new agricultural prac- 

 tice. But it is not so. Eyen in 

 America the farmers of Utah have 

 been 'raising crops on their dry 

 lands with a rainfall of less than 

 15 inches for over half a century. 

 More than that, dry-farming has 

 l>ecn practised since the dawn of 

 civilisation in Mesopotamia, in 

 Egypt, and in North-western In- 

 dia. And, as Professor Hilgard, of 

 California, 'remarked to the wri- 

 ter, " the great depth of soil in 

 arid regions as compared with that\ 

 of humid climates undoubtedly ex- 

 plains how the ancient agricultur- 

 ists could remain in the same 

 country for thousands of years 

 without having any knowledge o| 

 scientific agriculture." Most far- 

 mers are aware of the fact that 

 the roots of plants go far deeper 

 in dry regions than in damp cli- 

 mates, now, if the roots of plants 

 can penetrate, to great depths, so 

 surely must the moisture and air. 

 It would thus .seem as if an AU- 

 wise Providence had amply com- 

 pensated the agriculturist of tlie 

 arid regions by giving him in 

 many parts of the glob'e great 

 depth of soil combined with an 

 almost inexhaustible -fertility. 

 Such, at least, is the lesson of 

 history. 



Summing up, we may say that 

 desert regions are, specially adapt- 

 ed to dr^'-farming, because as a 

 general rule desert lands are deep 

 lands, in which the scanty rainfall 

 can be stored for a long period ; 

 and though arid soils are ustiaUy 

 poor in humus, they are much 

 richer in nitrogen than the. soils 

 of humid regions. It has been 

 shown that the nitrogen-fixiTig 

 germs are actively present in large 

 numbers in dry soils. Finally, de- 

 sert lands are usually free from 

 malaria, and are thus well suited 

 to colonisation. 



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