THE 



TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST 



AND 



MAGAZINE OF THE 



CEYLON AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Vor,. XXXVIII, COLOMBO, MAECH 15th, 1912, No. 3. 



DRY FARMING. 



An extensive report has recently been 

 issued by the International Institute of 

 Agriculture on Campbell's Dry Farming 

 System. The general principles upon 

 which this system is based have been 

 more or less familiar to scientific 

 students of the Soil for many years, but 

 they have only recently been brought 

 into prominence, notably by a series of 

 Dry Farming Congresses held in the 

 United States of America, the first 

 having been convoked at Denver, 

 Colorado, in 1907. 



As a result of the new system arge 

 areas in the Central States of the Union 

 and in the more arid regions of Hungary 

 and Russia have been brought success- 

 fully under cultivation without the aid 

 of irrigation. In addition many farms 

 which formerly yielded a precarious 

 crop, and sometimes failed entirely in 

 years of more than usually deficient 

 rainfall, have been rendered perman- 

 ently successful. A section dealing ex- 

 clusively with Dry Farming has been 

 added to the Agricultural Department 

 of the United States of America. 



The system of dry farming depends 

 mainly upon three simple principles, 



The first of these is based upon the 

 fact that a cultivated soil absorbs more 

 water than an impervious and un. 

 cultivated soil. A simple method of 



conserving the meagre supplies of water 

 derived from a limited rainfall is there- 

 fore to cultivate the soil deeply and 

 thoroughly before rain is expected, and 

 thus store up additional supplies of 

 water in the soil itself. 



The second principle is one which is 

 already comparatively familiar. It de- 

 pends upon the fact that a loose and 

 powdery layer on the surface of the soil 

 is very impervious to water and acts as 

 an effective mulch, preventing loss of 

 water by evaporation. 



Both the above principles are well 

 known to planters in Ceylon. The 

 system of forking to prevent soil wash 

 is now very widely adopted. Unless 

 the rainfall is quite excessive the water 

 is held up and absorbed by the loosened 

 soil instead of rushing over the surface. 

 In the drier parts of Ceylon the disc 

 harrow is already becoming ga familiar 

 instrument for pulverizing the super- 

 ficial soil and producing an impervious 

 mulch. This implement was introduced 

 into Ceylon by the Botanical Depart- 

 ment, and has been used with great 

 success at the Government Experi- 

 ment Station at Maha-iluppalama and 

 elsewhere, 



The third principle, with which Camp- 

 bell's name is specially associated, is less 

 familiar. By the use of fork or plough 

 the whole of the surface soil is broken 



