THE DRY FARMING CONGRESS. 



285 



Mr. Driver is a believer in dry farming, having had forty years' suc- 

 cessful experience in a region where the average annual evaporation is 

 40 inches, while the precipitation scarcely ever reaches 15 inches. His 

 ranch is not for sale, but his neighbors say it is worth not less than 

 $60,000. 



From Dr. E. W. Hilgard, of Berkeley University, whose work for 

 farmers has won him international fame, we have the following interest- 

 ing facts: 



"California is the state in which dry farming has been longest prac- - 

 tlced, although it is not so known under that designation. Our orchard- 

 ists and vinyardists from the time of the beginning of fruit culture in 



Soil Treatment. 



California, have been careful to prepare the ground for summer, by 

 thorough and continued tillage of at least five or six inches for the pre- 

 vention of evaporation of the sub-soil, as well as for the better recep- 

 tion of any rains which may happen to come along during the dry season. 



Depletion of Humus. 



"It is, therefore, not a new thing here, and our experience has been 

 so lengthy as to already show the disadvantages which may result from 

 a long cultivation of the practice, viz.: the depletion of the humus of the 

 surface mulch by simple combustion under the dry heat of the summer. 

 This results rn soil becoming almost untillable and the fruit becoming 

 small and unsalable, though still quite abundant. This has been espe- 

 cially noticeable in the older plantations in our Santa Clara valley, where 

 the orchards and vineyards have suffered in this way. The remedy 



Soil Fertilization. 



which has been successfully applied has been the use of green manur- 

 ing, or stable manure, where available, in order to replace the humus, 

 and the crop in this case has been promptly improved. Some negligent 

 farmers who have left the weeds to grow, have not suffered in this 

 way, for the simple reason that the weeds furnished annually quite a 

 considerable green manure crop, and so prevented the depletion of the 

 surface mulch. 



"As you are doubtless aware, the use of the 'raw' manure is in- 

 admissable in the arid region, because of its causing the soil to become 

 too open, and spoiling it for the seed bed. The straw must first be 

 made to decay by 'curing.' This fact has led, in the past, to an enor- 

 mous waste of stable manure by burning, improvident farmers having 

 found that the ashes do at least some good, if not as much as the 

 rotted manure. 



"This wasteful practice is rapidly disappearing, and both straw and 

 straw manure are now being cured before incorporated into the soil 

 which is almost always done in autumn. Its use on the surface, as done 

 in the east, is wholly inadvisable. 



