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DRY FARMING CONGRESS. 



other varieties of crops that can be produced by arid farming. And we 

 have here before us demonstrations of what can be done by following 

 scientific methods in soil culture. But whatever we do, I advocate fall 

 plowing of the land; I unequivocally stand upon the ground that the 

 land must be fall plowed if the best results are to be obtained, and it 

 has been demonstrated again and again that in order to get the greatest 

 amount of moisture retained by the soil it is absolutely essential to plow 

 the land in the fall. 



We have here on the left a little table which tells the story in one 

 locality at one certain time — the amount of precipitation, the amount of 

 moisture in the soil. The amount of moisture in the soil was found on 

 the land that had been fall plowed as compared to that which had been 

 spring plowed, which was only one-third of one year's precipitation. 

 That has been demonstrated time and again. If you want to have the 

 moisture in the ground at the time of seeding the crop, it is necessary 

 to have the land plowed in the fall. I want to say that there are men 

 giving a great deal of time and thought and intelligence to this subject, 

 who feel that fall plowing is desirable in every instance. 



President Paxman, who spoke to you yesterday, and who is one of 

 our best dry farmers, is thinking now that perhaps we can get rid of 

 the w^eeds and vegetation by discing the land in the fall and then in 

 the spring, along in May or June, thus killing the vegetation, and with 

 the fall plowing he is going to do that in the two years in which we 

 are producing the one crop. That has some merit. It has some merit 

 in getting rid of the weeds. It is a matter of economy. But I take 

 it that if we want to conserve all of the moisture we must stand by the 

 method that has been demonstrated to be a success in this state for 

 years, and that is to fallow the land in the fall. After the land has been 

 plowed in the fall to great depth — it may be that isolated experiments 

 here and there can be stated to show where ground plowed five or six. 

 inches deep gives best results, but take the experiments conducted in this 

 state as a whole and group them together, and you will find the best 

 results on the average have been secured, without an exception, in my 

 mind, without a single instance, in my mind, where the general results 

 are taken, comparing the results in one part of the state w4th others, 

 but that the best results have been by deep plowing. I stand here to 

 advocate deeper plowing in order that the water held in the soil for 

 the use of the plants may stay there in a certain, definite way. It is a 

 well-known fact that plants will sometimes die from drouth when the 

 water stands within sixteen inches of the surface, simply because the 

 feeding area of the root surface is not sufficient to allow the plant to 

 take up the moisure from the soil. We must have this moisture which 

 is going to be taken by the plant stay in the soil in a certain, definite 

 way; it must stay as a thin film of moisture around each grain of soil, 

 and for that reason we believe in having as many grains of soil as we 

 can stay in a limited space. These other theories may be all right for 

 Colorado, or Nebraska, or in the east, or central west, but for Utah, under 



