THE DRY FARMING CONGRESS. 



37 



that it is very difficult to do the work just right. One of the rules that 

 is insisted upon at Broadview is, 'unless you can do it right, don't do 

 it at all — wait, wait, even if it cannot be done until next season. To 

 plow land when the physical conditions are not the very best, to put 

 seed into the soil where seed bed and moisture are not just right, is 

 simply inviting failure.' 



Cost of Production. 



"According to the best information I can gather, it takes fifteen 

 bushels of wheat to pay the cost of putting in and harvesting a crop 

 on an acre of wheat land, and unless the yield can be increased over 

 fifteen bushels per acre, then the farmer will have nothing to show for 

 his investment, though the small farmer, living on his own farm and 

 doing his own work, might continue to hold his own on a wage basis 

 so long as he met with no misfortune, but the man who aspires to farm 

 on a large scale must necessarily adopt scientific methods that insure 

 maximum results or he will surely end in bankruptcy. 

 Failures and Cause. 



"Failures there have been, and failures there will be so long as 

 men practice haphazard mehods, but failures there need not be if scien- 

 tific methods of soil culture are closely followed in sections where the 

 physical conditions of the soil will permit of a thorough preparation of 

 the seed bed and where precipitation amounts to ten or more inches 

 during the growing season. 



"The vast majority of settlers ir^ the semi-arid belt are practicing 

 dry farming, and very dry farming at that. Little or no effort is made 

 to conserve moisture for each season's crops, let alone storing up moist- 

 ture for succeeding crops. 



Soil Treatment. 



"Few practice harrowing the growing crop to break up the capil- 

 laries and prevent rapid evaporation following rains after wheat is up. 

 Almost no one follows the reaper with the disc harrow to prevent the 

 loss of hydroscopic and residual moisture that may not have been ex- 

 hausted by the growing crop. Too often tlie stubble is left to lie and 

 bake in the autumn sun, and when the plows are started in the fall the 

 ground breaks up in such a coarse, lumpy condition tha.t it is impossi'ble 

 to secure an ideal seed bed. Very few adopt any method to pack the 

 soil after turning the stubble, but leave the ground just as the mold 

 board turns it, with the result tha.t, even if the soil had been in good 

 condition to plow, it dries down to the full depth of the plowing, be that 

 four, five or ten inches. Very few even harrow the surface, and a less 

 number use a packer. When these vitally essential points in proper 

 preparation of the soil are omitted at the time when they should be 

 looked after, no amount of subsequent disking, harrowing and rolling 

 can put the seed bed in an ideal condition. No real progress in mois- 

 ture conservation can be had until these A B C's of the system have 

 been mastered and put into practice as a matter of course. 



