THE DRY FARMING CONGRESS 



97 



from moisture being lost." 

 Soil Packing. 



A DELEGATE: "I find that it opens a very narrow slice in the wet 

 ground below and your seed takes root in this wet ground and after the 

 dry spells come on they are not rooted and are stricken down." 



Press Drill. 



MR. BAINER: "We had a great deal of trouble in Colorado with 

 grain not coming up uniformly and we found where the press drill was 

 used the grain came up better, owing to the fact that the moisture was 

 packed around the seed right where it was wanted. 



Soil Treatment. 



"If you leave the ground open there is every chance for the air and 

 wind to take the moisture out from the root of the seed and before you 

 get enough moisture to make the seed grow well, it dies." 



Seed Drill. 



A DELEGATE: "I find the seed drill gives better results." 



MR. BAINER: "Maybe under certain conditions it wiil, but under 

 average conditions it will not. Of course, this pre-supposes that the 

 ground is in ideal condition when you use the drill. 



Soil Treatment. ^ 



Of course, you cultivate the ground the season before and the mulch 

 is on top and you drill the grain into a very narrow opening which closes 

 the hole that the shoe drill makes. That has given splendid results for 

 me, but it is so often that ground is not in that condition. You know 

 packing does tend to bring the moisture up to a certain extent. Any 

 moisture down deep in the ground will naturally be drawn by packing. 

 That is so with the crust and unless you break the crust on a field you 

 will lose a lot of moisture." 



Sub-Surface Packing. 



MR. HAYES. OF TEXAS: "I would like some information as to the 

 method of packing the. ground after plowing." 



MR. BAINER: "Well, there are two different methods commonly 

 used. One is the Campbell sub-surface packer which is advocated so 

 much at present by dry farming people. With that method you pack 

 under the surface and at the same time leave the upper surfac prac- 

 tically loose. The other is by means of some type of bore either cor- 

 rugated or smooth. If I used either one I would use the corrugated 

 bore which has W shaped wings. That leaves the ground rough over 

 the surface, ridges and depressions lying side by side from the top of 

 one ridge to another, being from two to four inches. In case it is windy, 

 v^hich sometimes bothers a great deal, by running that corrugated bore 

 over you can save blowing to some extent. There is some danger of los- 

 ing moisture because the surface is smooth on the surface where the - 

 packer wheel is worked." i/4 



