THE DRY FARMING CONGRESS. 



331 



when the crop is not growing, so as to keep the moisture by summer- 

 tilli'ng every other year until you have gotten in the second summer- 

 tilling, you can then maybe grow two, three, maybe four crops. Much will 

 depend upon the persistency and care of the work and how you take care 

 of the land before and after the crop. 



Now with reference to our plan of fitting ground. 



Soil Treatment. 



We start in, we will suppose, in the spring, with a piece of old ground. 

 We double disk it just as auick as the conditions will let us onto it, that 

 is, after it has thawed out and the water has gone down enough so that it 

 will not stick to the disk. Out oibject is threefold; to stop evaporation, 

 to admit of the air used in developing the nitrates and bacteria and 

 also, to put that surface in condition to take the next rain when it comes. 



Now, a little on that point. Many of you have watered tomato and 

 cabbage plants. When you set them out the surface will be dry. When you 

 put the water on, it seems to lie there. It does not percolate. There is 

 a resistance in those dry particles underneath. After a while it works its 

 way down and then you give a second application of water and it is 

 immediately gone. Now, when you have your soil moist, below the mulch, 

 and when yonr rain comes and it goes through the coarser soil on top, 

 as soon as it comes in contact with the moist soil below it goes right 

 down just the same as your second application of water, to the bottom of 

 the moist soil where it will force its way, by gravity, on down particle 

 after particle until it is distributed just the same as your first applica- 

 tion to the tomiato plant. I have watched this over and over again. I 



Depth of Moisture. 



have gone down into the soil after heavy rains to find that the bottom of 

 the m'oisture of the soil would be anywhere from one to six or seven 

 inches, according to the rainfall. After a few days, that has gone on 

 down until it is all practically the same. When a heavy rain comes, that 

 dissolve^ and settles this mailch that you have loosened up on top. You 

 loosen it up with the harrow. If it is too heavy, it becomes too compact to 

 use the disk again. Be sure to keep it loose. Follow this up until about 

 the last of june and then plow it. 



Why do we insist upon this up to that date? Because of the weed 

 question. You will find about the last of June the weeds will get very 

 persistent, and It is difficult to keep them down with any tool we can 

 use on the surface. 



Then we plow and work late enough so that the second crop of weeds, 

 unless we have a very favoirable season as far as rainfall and heat are 

 concerned, will not come on to bother at all. As soon as you are ready 

 to do the plowing, your ground is moist and in perfect condition and it 

 tumbles over and goes all to pieces, and you follow with a packer that 

 makes the bottom firm, and then with the harrow. Then if you get a 

 rain, just an ordinary shower that practically wets the mulch, the com- 

 mon harrow, being larger, answers the purpose just as well. You simply 



