THE DRY FARMING CONGRESS. 



103 



location where the climate and soil conditions are different and it does 

 not do what they said it would do. Therefore, we have got to breed 

 these plants where they are going to be grown, and we hope to have 

 funds enough to go into a number of sections and start this work of 

 plant breeding, which is adapted to that particular locality. 



County Demonstration Farms. 



"We have another thing that I think perhaps the legislature will 

 pass that will enable us to study conditions throughout the state. A 

 bill was introduced not requiring, but making it a voluntary proposition 

 that each county on the county poor farm set aside a certain amount of 

 land and the county commissioners donate a certain amount of money 

 for a demonstration farm in every county, and that is something that 

 will be taken hold of with a great deal of energy by the county com- 

 missioners. This will mean the carrying out of the work in every county 

 in the state in demonstrations in an experimental way, and enable us to 

 study conditions in a small way and draw the attention of the people to 

 the county farms of their own; the principal object being demonstration 

 rather than experiment. It is along these lines that we hope to help 

 Kansas and we feel good, for the governor and the legislature are with 

 us to help extend the work out through the state." 



MONTANA. 



Alfred Atkinson, Professor of Agronom.y, State Agricultural College, 

 Bozeman, Montana, made the following report of the experimental work 

 in that state: 



"The practice of allowing fields to remain uncropped or to 'rest' 

 through a season occasionally, has been identified with crop raising in 

 many generations. 



Summer Fallow. 



"The increased returns after a field's fallow season led early agri- 

 culturists to believe that there was high fertility merit in the system: 

 Again, the rapid increase or weed pests ^in many localities made some 

 kind of summer culture imperative so that the practice of summer fal 

 lowing has been known and followed in most agricultural communities 

 to a greater or less degree. 



Crop Rotation. 



"Throughout humid regions farmers have found that summer fallow- 

 ing does not make for permanently high production, and the system has 

 been replaced by carefully arranged crop rotations in many localities. 



English Experiments. 



"The experiments at the Rothamsted Experiment Station in England, 

 continued over a long period of years, prove conclusively that in humid 

 regions, allowing the soil to remain uncropped throughout the season, 

 occasionally is a practice that can not be too strongly condemned. The 

 plant food content becomes reduced very rapidly, and long before the 



