Forage Crops For The Colorado Plains 
5 
If the surface is granulated from the size of small gravel up to the 
size of a walnut, there is almost no danger of its blowing. A finely 
pulverized surface will almost certainly blow; no matter what the tex¬ 
ture of the soil. 
’ On all but the very sandiest lands, soil blowing may be controlled. 
Control methods consist of keeping the immediate soil surface rough 
on all plowed land and cultivated land not in crop. Anything which 
will break the force of the wind at the soil surface is effective. On 
many soils where the tendency is to blow badly, fall plowing can not 
be done. Usually, however, such lands may be fall listed crosswise of 
the direction of the prevailing winds. The furrows furnish sufficient 
protection to‘largely prevent blowing. 
When a crop is to be planted, other protection is sometimes nec¬ 
essary. One successful method is to plant grain in strips alternate 
with listed land. Corn or some of the sorghums are planted in the 
listed furrows. Having these strins at least a rod wide and placed 
from ten to forty rods apart furnishes protection against soil blowing 
on any soils except the purest sands. 
DRY FARMING 
The commonly accepted definition of dry farming is taken to be 
the production of crops without irrigation in a region where the rain¬ 
fall is between lo to 20 inches per annum. Much work has been done 
in an attempt to find adapted crops for dry farming; to find out the 
principles of water movement; the principles of moisture conservation; 
and what practical methods of plowing and cultivation must be fol¬ 
lowed to get the best results. At first, both practically and scientifically, 
the effort seemed to run itself to the production of grain crops 
or a knowledge of the principles underlying their production. Long 
experience, however, has shown, and a study of the climatic and 
moisture conditions of the soil bears the opinion out, that any system 
of farming which depends upon the production of cash grain crops on 
dry lands of the Colorado Plains, is destined to failure in all but a very 
few localities. 
The crops which grow and thrive best, which are most certain 
of reaching harvestable maturity, are forage crops. Owing to their 
bulk and to the varied character of these crops they can not generally 
be marketed directly for cash. They must therefor, be fed to some 
kind of livestock and the I’vestock marketed if a permanent svstem of 
agriculture is to be established and maintained in this region. With the 
proper use of forage crops and livestock, with perhaps the growth of 
small acreages of the best adapted cash crops, and the use of livestock, 
a permanent system can be established. The cash grain crops will not 
bring in money each year, but occasionally thev will make an agree¬ 
able addition toffhe money supply of the family. The main depend¬ 
ence, however, must be placed upon forage crops marketed thru live¬ 
stock. ... 
