59 



and we were doing double the amount of work required to produce' 

 12 or 13 bushels as was required to produce 33 bushels. So it has been 

 demonstrated that our summer-fallowing is a matter of preserving the- 

 moisture. 



" Further, it has been shown we can go for months without any 

 rainfall at all, if we have the moisture stored in the soil. There are 

 places in this State where they have been storing and conserving the 

 moisture for ten and twenty years keeping it stored up in the soil, and 

 then when the plant is put in the soil there is sufficient moisture to 

 carry it through, whether they get any rain or not. That is the idea we- 

 are trying to follow in dry-farming in Utah. We believe in deep ploughing 

 because we want this moisture to spread down around each one of the 

 soil grains. When Bishop Farrell and Mr. Salisbury first started their 

 experiments in Cache Valley, many years ago, they both had the same 

 experience. They went out and sowed the same amount of seed on their 

 land as they had been accustomed to sowing on irrigated land, a bushel 

 and a half (90 lbs.) and two bushels and a half (150 lbs.), and as a 

 consequence there wasn't sufficient moisture in the ground to nourish 

 the plants. The plants came up, and there not being sufficient moisture 

 in the ground to carry them through they wilted and died. And Mr. 

 Salisbury said that his failures during the first three or four years were- 

 simply because he had not learnt the great lesson of simply putting 

 sufficient seed on the land for the amount of moisture present to carry 

 it through. So now it has come that in Utah we are advocating seeding 

 with a small amount of seed. We don't lay down any set rules. 

 We say about two pecks (30 lbs.) to four pecks of seed ought to be used. 

 Now with reference to tilling our crops, we believe in constant cultiva- 

 tion. In the winter time, after the wheat is up, it is absolutely essential 

 to harrow the wheat, two, three, four, or five times, in order to break up- 

 and destroy the crust so that the water will not come to the surface and 

 evaporate. We believe in ploughing, harrowing, discing, and in doing 

 anything and everything on the dry-farm to keep the rain stored up* 

 in the soil for the use of the plant." 



The following is an extract from a speech made by Mr. George L. 

 Farrell, a practical farmer, at the Cheyenne Dry-farming Congress : — 



"I began farming in Cache Valley in 1864, farming in the same- 

 manner I did in the region I came from. I failed miserably for two> 

 years. I always hated to be overcome, and I determined to either win 

 out or ' go broke.' I had been ploughing 3 to 4 inches, but I tried 

 ploughing down to 8 and more inches. I also sowed less than half the 

 grain I had been sowing. The result was that I had something to- 

 harvest. I took encouragement, and, the following year, seeded 110 

 acres of deep, well ploughed land to wheat, using but 30 to 35 lbs. of 

 seed per acre. I harvested exactly 40 bushels and 8 lbs. per acre. I 

 found that by seeding on a better prepared seed bed, with less seed, I 

 had larger heads and more rows of wheat kernels per head. 



Thin" Seeding. 



" When we sow grain too thick on dry-farms it comes up so thick that 

 it draws the substance and moisture out of the ground, until there is not 

 enough moisture to support it and the grain fails to fill out — does not: 



