THE DRY FARMING CONGRESS. 



141 



were determined, as will be shown by Dr. Briggs, I think it will readily 

 be granted that we here have vastly more reliable data upon this 

 subject that have ever been brought together before. 



"Such being the case, we ought to be in a position to draw more 

 definite and positive conclusions than anyone else concerning the best 

 methods of dry farming, and I believe we are. What, then, are these 

 conclusions? . 



"Briefly, our conclusions are: 

 Danger in Generalization. 



"That vastly more data than we yet possess must be gathered before 

 anyone will be warranted in making any broad and sweeping generaliza- 

 tions concerning methods and systems of dry land agriculture, such as 

 are so freely made by a certain class of popular writers who have little 

 or no experimental results upon which to base their assertions. We have 

 demonstrated beyond a question that very few of the hard and fast rules, 

 so confidently laid down by this class of writers are of such universal 

 application as they claim. As will be shown by the diagrams, the meth- 

 ods which give most satisfactory results one year, will sometimes fail 

 completely to give the same results another year on identically the same 

 soil. And that what will bring good results at one station will fail utter- 

 ly to give like results at another station, even when climatic conditions 

 are similar. 



Soil Treatment. 



"In some localities upon a certain type of soil, spring plowing will 

 generally give better results than fall plowing. In other localities with 

 another type of soil, fall plowing will generally give better results than 

 spring plowing. But even these are only very general rules, for we find 

 that the comparative merits of fall and spring plowing are frequently 

 reversed at the same station on identically the same kind of soil, under 

 slightly different climatic conditions. 



Summer Fallow. 



"Alternate cropping and summer tillage will generally give better 

 results than continuous cropping, but there are exceptions to this rule. 



Soil Fertilization. 



"The plowing under of green manure will generally give better re- 

 sults than summer tillage, but not always. A proper system of crop ro- 

 tation will generally give better results than continuous cropping, but 

 even this rule is not of universal application, as will be seen from the 

 diagrams which we are about to examine. Thus we might continue until 

 we had shown the utter futility of attempting to formulate any set of 

 rules for dry land farming that would be of universal application. 



"What would be 'good farming' on one type of soil, subject to one 

 set of climatic conditions, might be 'poor farming' if either the soil type 

 or the climatic conditions were changed. What seems to be the best of 

 'good farming' in the preparation of the seed bed and the planting and 



