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THIRD ANNUAL SESSIONS 



improvement and development of crops suited to the various conditions 

 in the dry farming sections as in the improvement of methods of hand- 

 ling the soil. In other words the pedigree of the seed is quite as im- 

 portant as the cultural methods. Neither should be neglected. Certain 

 machines are designed for certain kinds of work. Certain breeds of 

 animals are selected for special results. No one would think of trying to ^ 

 harvest wheat with a threshing machine. No one would for a moment 

 think of placing a thoroughbred Herford cow in the city dairj^ So we 

 must select kinds and classes of seeds for our particular purposes. If 

 the rainy season is short, early maturing crops must be selected, those 

 having a short period of growth. If the rainy season is preceded by a 

 rather long period when the moisture content of the soil is rather low in 

 spite of the means employed to increase it, then crops should be chosen 

 that will make the necessary early growth with a minimum amount of 

 moisture and later be pushed forward to rapid maturity when the rainy 

 season sets in. Still other crops or strains of seed must be selected 

 wherever the moisture content of the soil is ample throughout the grow- 

 ing season. Under such a condition it would be quite useless to grow 

 crops bred for and adapted to a very short season's growth. The dry 

 farmer must not neglect the cultural methods, but he must not be tied 

 to the idea that the way in which the soil is handled is the only essenial. 

 The kind of crop and the class or strain of seed used are factors which 

 ultimately will have much to do with the result. 

 Seed Adaptation. 



It has been demonstrated by repeated experiments that crops can 

 within certain limits be adapted to new and different environments. 

 Acquatic plants in time have adapted themselves to and become dry 

 land plants. So to plants that for centuries have grown in conditions of 

 abundance of moisture, have gradually become adapted to conditions 

 where there was very decidedly less moisture. This ybyj wise provision 

 of nature supplies the means whereby man is able to transport and 

 adapt crons to new and heretofore untried conditions. He is only barred 

 in his progress by the limitations nature has set. 

 Seed Breeding. 



There is little doubt but that strains of seed of certain crops which 

 have been successfully grown for years under trying semi-arid conditions 

 will be in great demand. As a result of this demand we may reasonably 

 expect pedigreed dry farm crops to appear and they will fill an import- 

 ant want. 



To give a list of crops suited to dry farming for all sections and con- 

 ditions is practically impossible. Crops that are well suited to a certain 

 class of conditions would be wholly unsuited to another. Therefore, the 

 following brief list must be considered only as suggestive. 

 Cereals. 

 Seed Selection. 



Wheat stands at the head among the cereal crops for dry farming 



