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DRY-FARMING CONGRESS, WICHITA, 1914 



Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad. He is accomplishing a great work 

 in the Southwest. He is a Vice-President of the Congress. 

 Mr. Bainer will now address us: 



Address of Mr. Bainer. 

 SUCCESSFUL DRY-LAND GARDEN. 



That a successful garden is a necessity on the dry-farm, there cannot 

 be the slightest question. In view of the fact that the right kind of garden 

 will furnish fully one-half of the living, it resolves itself into an item 

 worthy of closest consideration, and no farmer who seeks after maximum 

 success, can afford to ignore so important a matter. 



The statement that the "farmer feeds the world" is not older than it is 

 true, but when in the light of this truth, we stand face to face with the 

 startling fact that he does not feed himself and family, there is .just cause 

 for wonderment and question, and we find this condition prevailing all too 

 extensively, especially on the dry-land farm. 



It is manifestly unfair to the farmer's friends, the cow, the hog, and 

 the hen, that they should be called upon not only to furnish cash for the 

 purchase of those articles impossible to the average farm, such as sugar, 

 coffee, tea, clothing, books, papers, etc., and then in addition, the common 

 vegetables, including potatoes, turnips, beans, peas, and even melons and 

 fruit, often seen loaded on the farmwagon as it leaves town for home. 

 When such conditions as are here described prevail, something is radically 

 wrong, and it is to suggest remedies for these, that we would engage this 

 afternoon. 



Do we hear the question: "How is the farmer to produce this gar- 

 den?" In beginning my task of answering this perfectly legitimate ques- 

 tion, I would remind my questioners that water constitutes a high percent- 

 age of the common vegetables, and hence that the abundance or scarcity 

 of this element practically controls the yield. None will attempt to deny 

 that soil fertility is an element in production, but no matter how rich the^ 

 land, moisture is the controlling factor. It is out of consideration of this 

 fact that I shall give my time largely to the water supply and its appli- 

 cation. 



Deep Plowing — Experiments and demonstrations have proved that it is 

 easier to control soil moisture in a properly prepared seedbed: One that is 

 deep, tharl one that is shallow, a fact that holds good not only with dry- 

 farming, but also with lands handled under irrigation. What is true of 

 farming, is also a safe rule for gardening. Best results are assured in 

 connection with deep preparation early in the fall or winter. This early 

 deep preparation becomes compact before planting time and does not dry 

 out as quickly as that soil broken later and left loose and open. Again, 

 the early deep plowing accumulates the winter moisture, and is also bene- 

 fited by the alternate freezing and thawing process through which it 

 passes. Rainfall often comes in torrents in practically all of the . dry- 

 farming area, a condition rendering absolutely necessary a deep soil reser- 

 voir, if the moisture is to be conserved, and not lost by running off. Evap- 



