6 
C()U)KADo Experiment Station 
GENERAL FARM PRACTICE AND MANAGEMENT 
Dry farming at its best is serious business. As a consequence, 
there are certain fundamental considerations which the settler should 
bear in mind. A well for domestic water supply is absolutely essential. 
If such domestic water supply can not be obtained upon the land or 
immediately adjacent to it, other features would have to be extremely 
desirable to make it advisable to locate a home. The production of 
crops is more or less uncertain and the prospective settler should bv 
all means bring sufficient capital in moaey, or in money and materials, 
to carry him thru at least one year until production can be started. 
For the most part the plains are treeless. In the building of a 
home, one of the first things, after the house and sheds for livestock 
are provided, should be the making of some provisions for trees. 
Where land is properly prepared and properly cultivated, trees can be 
grown almost anywhere on the plains, providing they are given suffi¬ 
cient space. The moisture supply on dry land soils is always less 
abundant than it is in the humid regions; consequently the trees should 
be set much farther apart. The sod should be broken up at once in 
preparation for planting trees. A strip should be plowed at least 
twenty feet wider than the expected space which the trees will occupy. 
This should be kept free of weeds by plowing or other form of cul¬ 
tivation to permit the accumulation of water. Sometimes the soil can 
be sufficiently moistened, when such clean cultivation is followed, in 
one season to perm.it perfect safety in tree planting. Sometimes two 
seasons must elapse, and in extreme seasons as many as three. The 
ground should be ready and have sufficient moisture before trees are 
put out. 
The planting of trees will make it possible to have some shade 
about the home. In addition to this, trees will break the dreary mono¬ 
tony of the plains—a monotony which is very real to all those not born 
and bred plainsmen. The women folks of the family are especially 
susceptible to this loneliness because of the isolation and difficulty of 
social relations with the neighbors. 
The dry farmer should make provision for a garden somewhere 
near his well. If a good well is present for domestic water supply it 
can be used, especially if a little storage is possible, to insure a good 
small garden if the water is properly applied at the right time. 
The dry farmer should by all means plan his cropping system so 
as to grow feed for at least a few chickens and pigs, so that the family 
living will be insured. The type of other livestock which he chooses 
to grow will depend a good deal upon his location, as either dairy or 
meat animals can be made profitable. There will be seasons when an 
abundance of feed will be produced. There will be other seasons when 
the amount of feed produced must be very carefully husbanded in 
order to permit existence; consequently, sooner or later the dry farmer 
should come to the proposition of saving all of his feed, and in extra 
