THE DRY FARMING CONGRESS. 



333 



Soil Treatment. 



I suppose from five to seven days prior to tliat, we had cultivated the 

 orchard with, a harrow, and our corn with a twelve-tooth spring cultivator. 

 The corn was then too high to cultivate with the other cultivator. When 

 the grain was all harvested, I instructed the foreman to go into the or- 

 chard with the disk and, setting a notch deeper, cultivate; likewise cul- 

 tivate the corn setting the cultivator one notch deeper than the previous 

 cultivation. 



Two days after he began cultivation, I returned and asked him what 

 was his success. "We have worn the points of the harrow all off, and we 

 have broken these teeth in trying to cultivate the corn," he said. 



Fruit Trees. 



I went into the orchard, pushed the mulch away and tried to break 

 the under dirt with my heel, but could not. I got a hammer and hit it in 

 several places. It was just like cement. Examination with the glass 

 showed that the spaces between the earth particles were literally filled 

 with magnesia alkali salts, that were in the ground, had come up in 

 soluble condition, and as the moisture passed off in a vapor, were de- 

 posited there. We then tried double disking in the orchard. On the 

 morning of the fourth day there was a preceptible difference in the color 

 of the leaves of the orchard. The leaves looked as if it was getting drier, 

 but, in examining, we found an abundance of moisture just beneath the 

 mulch. Seven days after this last cultivation, I invited five or six busi- 

 ness men out to see the orchard. We were hardly out of town before 

 one man said, "What makes the difference between the north and south 

 half of the orchard?" It was light colored on the north part, while the 

 south part was green and healthy. 



We had four months more of that extreme, excessive condition and 

 yet, I never saw healthier trees anywhere than were growing on that 

 piece of land. You, who have my manual, will notice the photographs of 

 the trees are shown giving the growth that particular year. This severe 

 test reveals the value of this cultivation. 



We generally speak of going onto new ground. My idea is to break 

 it as early as possible. When I left Dakota, my idea was not to break 

 ground except when the grass was growing, we thought that was the 

 best time. Now I have come to the conclusion — ^and this is assuming that 

 a man wants to get something for his money — ^that it is best to break 

 just as early as possible, and I would break i'n the fall if possible, turn- 

 ing the ground over two and one-half to three inches deep and rolling 

 it flat. If a man has forty acres of ground to break, it will pay him to 

 buy an old fashioned roller to work that flat, then follow it with the 

 harrow so as to loosen up the top and fill the crevices to form a perfectly 

 smooth surface. 



(This abstract of the Denver address gives a clear synopsis of the 

 Campbell System by its author. — W. H. O.) 



