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DRY-FARMING CONGRESS, WICHITA, 1914 



From the results of these tests it is doubtful if it would prove profit- 

 able alternately to crop and summer fallow land if it were possible to pre- 

 pare the ground each season by either plowing or listing early in the 

 summer. Where a large acreage of ground is to be prepared for wheat with 

 limited equipment, it is impossible to prepare all the ground at an early 

 date. Under such conditions, a system of summer-fallowing that will dis- 

 tribute the work through the different seasons of the year and thus allow 

 all work to be done more opportunely will undoubtedly prove profitable. 



A System of Summer Fallowing in Continuous Wheatgrowing. 



On farms where wheat is practically the only crop grown and where 

 sufficient equipment is not available to handle all of the ground in the 

 best possible manner, a system could be profitably practiced whereby one- 

 fourth or more of the land is fallowed each season and three-fourths 

 planted to wheat. The ground to be fallowed could be double-disced early 

 in the spring and plowed as soon as spring rains fall and when the ground 

 was in good condition for plowing. It is usually cool at this season of the 

 year; equipment is available and deep plowing could be done. There would 

 be sufficient time between plowing and seeding for the deep plowing to 

 become thoroughly packed. Where wheat is grown continuously in western 

 Kansas, it is not safe to plow deep for there is not sufficient time, even 

 though the plowing is done early, for the ground to become packed by 

 seeding time. It is, therefore, necessary, if deep plowing is to be done, to 

 introduce into the system of farming an occasional summer fallow. The 

 object should be to have all the summer fallowed ground plowed before the 

 opening of harvest. 



After plowing, the ground should be worked just enough to keep down 

 weed growth. In fact, over-working should be avoided to prevent the 

 ground becoming so smooth and fine that water would be slowly absorbed 

 and that blowing might follow. The ground that had been summer fal- 

 lowed the preceding summer could be prepared by listing or discing as 

 soon as possible after harvest. On a loose type of soil where plowing had 

 been deep in preparation for the summer fallow and the ground was loose 

 at harvest time, the best method of preparing the seed bed would be by 

 discing or, if there was little or no weed growth, by stubbling in # the crop. 



The ground that had been fallowed two years before should be plowed 

 or listed to only a medium depth soon after harvest and prepared for the 

 crop in the best possible manner. The ground to be summer fallowed the 

 next season could be disked the fall or summer before if labor was avail- 

 able for the purpose. If not, it could be left unworked until the following 

 spring. 



By such a system a farmer handling four hundred acres of wheat each 

 year would divide his farm into four one hundred acre fields as shown 

 by the accompanying table: 



