49 



tfarmer often asks, " How deep should I plough ? " and again " What is 

 •deep ploughing ? " Usually deep ploughing means anything from seven 

 to ten inches and over. In dry-farming deep ploughing is strongly to be 

 recommended for several reasons ; it increases the water-holding capacity 

 of the soil, admits sunlight and air, extends the root feeding area, prevents 

 Jight land from being blown away, encourages the growth of soil bacteria, 

 prevents surface washing after heavy rains, and, lastly, enables plants to 

 successfully withstand long periods of drought. Broadly speaking, a soil 

 that is best suited to dry-farming is also one that may be ploughed deeply, 

 but the best results have so far been obtained on deep uniform sandy 

 -loams. 



Now, let us suppose that we have stored practically the whole of 

 the last heavy downpour in our deep mellow ploughecL lands. How can 

 it be kept within 'the soil for the use of the crop ? The reply is : with 

 the harrow and cultivator. The moment the ground is dry enough to be 

 worked, go over it with a harrow when the field is bare or with a 

 -cultivator if in crop. Oftentimes, a growing crop may be harrowed with 

 great advantage, as for example, wheat or maize while the plants are still 

 young and flexible. The result of stirring the soil in this manner is to 

 iorm a soil-mulch which very effectively prevents loss of water, that is, 

 evaporation from the surface of the soil. Any material which is spread 

 upon the soil to shade the surface from the sun, and so check evaporation, 

 is termed a mulch. A soiLmulch is therefore merely a soil-mantle. In 

 ^gardening operations, leaves, manure, coarse hay, straw, and grass are 

 commonly used. Such mulches are very effective — even more so than a 

 mulch of fine earth — but they hinder the continual stirring of the land, 

 which allows the air and sunlight to penetrate into the soil and set free 

 plant food. Accordingly, the most useful and practical mulch in dry- 

 farming is that which is made of loose dry soil. This brings us to the 

 moisture-saving fallow. Formerly, the fallow was meant to designate a 

 piece of land left without a crop for a year or may be more. It was 

 allowed to " weather." This unfilled land often became hard and baked, 

 and weeds of every sort grew merrily upon it. Now weeds are the 

 robbers, not only of plant food, but also of moisture, and a hard soil means 

 that the rain cannot penetrate, while the loss of soil moisture through 

 evaporation is very great. But in dry-farming the conservation of 

 moisture is the all important problem, and this led to the adoption of 

 moisture-saving fallows, deeply ploughed in the first instance, and con- 

 stantly stirred thereafter to prevent the formation of a soil crust. These 

 « well tilled weedless lands will retain the rain for an indefinite period and 

 so insure the dry-farmer of a sufficient supply of moisture for his future 

 crops. Thus, side by side with his growing crops, the dry-farmer should 

 lay off moisture-fallows which may be maintained for periods of three 

 months, six months, or one year. The tilling of these fallows results in 

 four things : — (a) Storage of rainfall ; (&) destruction of weeds ; (c) 

 admission of sunshine and air ; (d) encouragement of beneficial soil 

 germs. 



This practice is not new. More than a century ago a clergyman 

 <(the Eev. Mr. Smith) at Lois Weedon in Northamptonshire, England, 

 started a system of alternate bare-fallowing and wheat cropping which 

 he carried on for over thirty years with perfect success, raising the yield 

 of wheat from sixteen bushels to thirty-four. His plan was simple. The 

 land was laid off in narrow strips, each alternate one was summer- 

 fallowed, and the others cropped with wheat — changing about each year. 

 In short, only half of each field was in wheat, the other half in fallow, 



