DRY LAND FARMING IN EASTERN COLORADO 
3 1 
to twelve inches apart in the row are thick enough. If all the seed 
would germinate, one pound per acre would be ample, but it is difficult 
to sow a small quantity uniformly in the row, and for seed production, 
it might pay to space and thin the plants. 
The row system is essential, as it permits inter-tillage to eradi¬ 
cate weeds, and to conserve the moisture, and also allows deep culti¬ 
vation to absorb winter storms, affording an opportunity to furrow 
out the rows and direct or divert any surface water that may or may 
not be needed. It is the only system that will allow the tillage that 
is so essential in all dry farming. 
The four-row beet cultivator, with its weeding knives and other 
attachments, is an ideal tool for cultivating the crop. A four-row 
drill, adapted to sowing alfalfa seed, is needed to complete the equip¬ 
ment, but the ordinary beet drill, with the addition of an alfalfa or 
grass seeder attachment, can be modified to suit the work. 
The seed should be sown shallow, not over an inch deep, and good 
results have been secured with the common garden drill by marking 
out the ground with the rows gauged in sets of four, to correspond to 
the four-row cultivator. 
Where there is an opportunity to use flood water for irrigation 
the field should be ditched in every other row, and the furrows logged 
out with a sled made of short logs, eight to ten inches in diameter, 
and from three to four feet long, spaced to fit two furrows, so that 
the water may run through as quickly as possible, lor the alfalfa crop 
for seed will need only a small application of water. A short rush of 
water after a sudden shower can be delivered over considerable ground 
if the field is properly ditched. 
IMPLEMENTS AND POWER. 
The yield under average dry land conditions is low and a large 
acreage must be handled per man in order to make a living. This 
requires a number of heavy horses and implements of large capacity. 
A man with two horses will hardly average plowing two acres per 
day. The same man with five or six horses and a gang plow can 
plow an average of five or more acres a day. The returns from his 
labor are two and a half times greater with the larger equipment. 
Riding implements are always preferable because with them a man 
does not get so tired that he can not think. 
A breaking plow for sod should have a mould board either solid 
or of rods. A disc plow does very poor work in sod. 
The mould board plow is preferable for old ground, except when 
the soil is so dry that it plows up in clods. A disc plow will turn 
over land very dry and hard without making clods. Extra shares 
should be purchased with each plow, as sharp shares save power. 
The lever smoothing harrow should be twenty-four feet wide, 
in four sections, with the coupling bars so arranged that two, three or 
four sections can be connected as desired. With five or six heavy 
horses on a 24-foot harrow, a man can till thirty to sixty acres a day. 
