58 



Cultivated versus Uncultivated Fallow. 



Since the object in summer-fallowing the land each alternate year 

 is to provide for increased yields the succeeding season, it is important 

 that we adopt the proper methods in connection with the management 

 <of the fallow in order that the full benefits may be gained. During 

 1907 two pieces of like fallow were set aside and used for the purpose 

 of determining the advantages of cultivating a fallow at the proper time 

 during the season as compared with leaving it wholly without cultivation. 

 In the spring of 1908, spring wheat was planted on the two plots. The 

 harvested yields showed that the grain on the plot which has been 

 cultivated as fallow produced three and one-half bushels per acre more 

 than the grain on the uncultivated plot. We believe that the average 

 •difference will be greater than this reported for this year when the tests 

 have been carried over a long period of years. However, the difference 

 in the yield reported is sufficient to more than compensate for the cost 

 of fallow cultivation and indicates the wisdom of caring for the fallow 

 in such a way that the weeds are kept down and moisture accumulated. 



APPENDIX IV. 



METHODS OF DKY-FAKMING- IN UTAH. 



The following is an extract from an address delivered by Professor Lewis 

 .A. Merrill at the Trans-Missouri Dry-farming Congress held at Salt Lake 

 City, 22nd to 25th January, 1908. After dealing with the amount of 

 water required by crops, Professor Merrill said : — 



" I want to object to the idea that has been advanced in this con- 

 gress that we need to rotate our crops. If we grow a crop of corn (maize) 

 on the land alternating with wheat, it simply means that that corn 

 is going to take so much moisture out of the land. I want to say that 

 the Utah method of fallowing the land, the practice of summer-fallowing, 

 is not a question of fertility of soil, but simply a question of conservation 

 of moisture. The great problem in Utah in relation to arid farming is 

 the best way of conservating the moisture we have. That is our 

 problem. It is not a question of the fertility of the soil. "We know, 

 for instance, over the State, that crops have been produced for forty to 

 fifty years in succession without any diminution in the yield at all. But 

 the simple problem is this, how can we best grow crops with the amount 

 of moisture we have,* and I say that the only practice that can be 

 followed successfully is the practice of summer-fallowing the land. In 

 some parts of the State it may be best for the ground to be 

 summer-fallowed only once in two years, and in other parts once in 

 three years. In most parts of the State it is best to summer-fallow every 

 other year. The arid farmer cannot succeed on the same amount of land 

 used by the irrigating farmer, even if his crops were as large, because he 

 requires double the amount of land because of the fact that half of the 

 land must lie idle every year. It has been demonstrated time 

 and again that a yield of 33 bushels of wheat can be produced 

 on land fallowed every other year, but where it was continuously 

 -cropped the yield was cut down to 12, or 13, or 14 bushels, 



* The average rainfall over the whole State of Utah is 12 inches. 



