DRY-FARMING CONGRESS, WICHITA, 1914 



203 



the trees from harm, and thirdly to avoid as much as possible any chance 

 of the trees being blown down. 



Mr. O. W. Barrett of the Philippine agricultural department, but who 

 has also had experience in the West Indies, in East Africa and elsewhere, 

 is one among a number of men, who have been vigorously advocating the 

 use of dust-mulches for some time past, and of course Dr. Widtsoe tells us 

 all about the advantages, as well as the necessity, of using a loose, dry 

 mulch to conserve the moisture, or rather to reduce evaporation, which 

 is the same thing in the long run. In face of this it is important to note 

 that in Tunis, we are told, by Dr. Russell Smith, in "Dun's Review," that in 

 the course of time (it takes sixty or seventy years, it is true) the continuous 

 dust mulch so exhausts the soil, that the olive starves to death, and al- 

 monds have to be planted to produce a new lot. Now is this correct, and 

 if so, is it neecssary? Is it the dust-mulching that kills these valuable 

 trees, and if so, cannot their loss be avoided? Surely with but ten trees to 

 the acre, even if .their roots do cover an immense area, and manures must 

 be applied at the ends or tips of the roots, it would be possible to put back 

 little by little, during these 60 or 70 years, that amount of plant food that 

 the trees and the crops require, if they are not to die through starvation. I 

 mention this only to warn those who systematically use a dust mulch, just to 

 watch their trees and see that no exhaustion is taking place, or if they see 

 signs of trouble, to take steps at«once to make up any plant-food found to 

 be deficient, and if you cannot apply it in any other way, dissolve your 

 fertilizer and apply it by pouring it into a hole or holes made round the 

 trees; at any rate send it down to the subsoil. Green manures might also 

 be introduced with advantage when possible, if dust-mulching is thought to 

 be adversely affecting the trees. 



You Americans, or rather, some of you, have been claiming certain 

 advantages for the spading harrow as an implement with which to break 

 up and pulverize the top soil when necessary to form a mulch, or for other 

 reasons to help break up the soil in a manner similar to that done by a 

 good frost in the colder climate; but is this implement really better than a 

 good disc harrow with cut-away discs ? Take, for instance, the English 

 maker's Ransomes, Sims & Jefferies, of Ipswich, whom I mention because I 

 know their machines. Would not their King disc harrow be better than the 

 American spading harrow for forming a top dressing? It is a powerful 

 implement and avoids, with its cut-away discs, any tendency of the soil to 

 stick to the implement, as I should imagine might and would happen when 

 using the spading harrow, especially on moist land. 



Tropical planters owning land in a dry zone no doubt are following the 

 excellent work being done in Ceylon, as at the experimental station at 

 Maha Illupallama and Anuvadhapuva, with cocoanuts, sisal hemp, and 

 Ceava rubber (M. Glaziovii) which seem likely to give satisfactory yields, 

 though how near we non- scientific dry-planters can approach these Ceylon 

 experts, remains to be seen. The cocoanuts especially were found to be 

 getting on very well; cotton is also being experimented with, as well as cer- 

 tain native dry-zone timber-yielding trees. The wood of such trees should 



