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DRY-FARMING CONGRESS, WICHITA, 1914 



sorghum crops are the ones that do best in the western one-half of Kansas, 

 and there is always an abundance of straw. The cost of bringing a growing 

 animal through the winter, need not exceed 6 or 7 dollars when fed the 

 feeds here indicated. 



Up until the last few years our sorghum fodder and the corn fodder, and 

 practically all of the straw, have been destroyed or not utilized. With the 

 advent of the silo, either the pit or the upright, we are able to convert these 

 byproducts into meat, and thus make possible the carrying of livestock on 

 every western Kansas farm. We have found that two acres of western Kan- 

 sas land, when planted to sorghums, will produce from 8 to 10 tons of silage, 

 or enough to carry an animal practically a year, when balanced with straw 

 and a small amount of alfalfa or some other protein feed. 



Farmers generally in this state are beginning to recognize the import- 

 ance of growing less wheat and more forage crops and more livestock on 

 their farms. They are also beginning to realize that the business of farm- 

 ing is very intricate, and that there is a right time for every operation 

 connected with growing a crop, and that the production of profitable yields 

 is absolutely dependent upon the way the soil has been managed preceding 

 the planting of the crop as well as during its growth. They also are be- 

 ginning to realize that only part has been done when the crop has been 

 grown, and that even a more important part is the proper utilization and 

 marketing of that crop. They are beginning to see that it is not only a 

 question of how they can make the land produce more, but how they can 

 get the most profit out of what they produce. 



While the dry-farming methods of growing crops are absolutely neces- 

 sary in western Kansas, where the rainfall is 22 inches and less, these 

 same methods are found highly profitable in any section of our state. We 

 find in western Kansas that a 6-months summer-fallow produces the best 

 yields, and a 2-months summer-fallow in eastern and central Kansas, where 

 the rainfall is 30 inches and more, brings about the same results as does 

 the longer fallow in western Kansas where the rainfall is less. The dry- 

 farming methods which has to do with the conservation of moisture are 

 coming to be regarded as important methods to use in the production of 

 crops in regions having a heavy rainfall. They are no longer confined to 

 areas of limited rainfall. It is rapidly becoming recognized that drought 

 in any agricultural district is the limiting factor usually in crop production. 



Even in districts having 60 inches of rainfall, there often are times 

 when it does not fall at the time when the crop needs it most, so that it is 

 up to the farmer to hold it in the soil when it does come until the crop can 

 use it most profitably. We are impressing this fact upon ovr eastern Kan- 

 sas farmers, where the rainfall is 40 inches, as well as upon those in west- 

 ern Kansas where the rainfall is lese than twenty inches. 



During the past 2 or 3 years we have suffered more severely from 

 drought than ordinarily, but in the long run the state will profit as a re- 

 sult. It is in time of drought, when going is difficult, that farmers, like 

 other people, are most receptive to receiving advice. So in Kansas during 

 the last two or three years farmers have accepted more readily than ordin- 



