DRY FARMING CONGRESS. 



167 



When the gentleman from ^Montana — !Mr. Atkinson — was speaking this 

 morning it seemed to me and I felt that maybe he had been experimenting 

 down in our locality, for his ideas in many respects have proven what I 

 have found out in my experience in dry-land farming. 



Now, our method is and always has been to plow in the fall from 

 seven to nine inches deep, and plow as soon as we can after the crop is 

 taken off. We don't do any more then on the farm until the following 

 spring, and I can't tell you just what time to start in the spring, because I 

 wait for conditions. I was told to harrow ni}' ground early in the spring — 

 as soon as spring opened up. I did it one year and I have never done it 

 since under those same conditions. I put my horses and harrows on the 

 ground early in the spring, and for two j^ears afterwards I could see where 

 every horse stepped — there was a lump as big as m}^ head where every 

 horse stepped. I got onto it too early. I didn't do that this season on my 

 land, because of the wet condition. However, there are seasons when two 

 harrowings can be done. It is a good thing to harrow in the spring but not 

 always to do it. So that I wait for the condition of the season. Our sea- 

 son changes. ^lost every season we can make our plans for next season 

 by those that have come this season. Of course we find things we can 

 profit by. We have to wait for conditions to come, size them up and then 

 act accordingly. As soon as the land becomes dr}^ enough in the spring — 

 and I decide that matter when I go on the land and don't allow the teams 

 to go on until it is dry — but when it is dry enough to work I put my teams 

 on the land and plow. And I try to be economical m this matter. I use 

 iive horses. I believe it is economy to use five horses. Sometimes the 

 horses get stuck, and I like to have plenty of teams. Put five horses on it 

 and plow it. I plow, as I said before, in the fall and in the spring. And 

 sometimes we have been rather up against it to know what to do with the 

 weeds and voluntary wheat that comes up on the farm and how to dispose 

 of them. You can dispose of a few acres very nicely, but when 3^ou wait 

 until the land is dry enough to get onto it with your team and cultivate 

 it the voluntary grain and weeds are growing so fast you often have to 

 wait three weeks to accomplish this end. We have tried the disc harrow 

 and it is good, but 3'ou can only use that successfully two or three weeks, 

 or until the weeds get so large it don't cut. The method we use now is 

 we plow with disc plows. We can put four discs on. In the fall I use 

 them with two discs on and five horses, as I have stated, and in the spring 

 I use four discs with the same team, and plow just as shallow as I can. 

 It isn't much more than a discing, but plow just as shallow as I can in order 

 to cut the weeds. We don't care what method we use, so we keep the 

 growth down and keep the land in good, nice tillable condition. We do 

 that and immediately after follow it right up with the harrow, and then 

 as often as we can, or whenever we can. When a rain comes, we go over 

 that and immediately after follow it right up with the harrow, and then 

 we have a harrow we use which is 24 feet wide, for four horses. It is a 

 light harrow that we use only for breaking this crust to keep the mulch 

 on top of the ground. In fact we have tried to make every implement so 



