DRY LAND FARMING IN EASTERN COLORADO 
17 
in dashing showers. To do this it must be broken and porous, to a 
depth of at least a foot, and in granular condition—neither loose nor 
puddled, and with no large air spaces. The surface must be kept 
corrugated. A soil in this sponge like condition not only absorbs 
water well, but allows a wide spread of the roots, giving to each plant 
a large water-supplying area. 
The raw prairie is broken the first time at any depth from three 
to nine inches, depending on the power available and the toughness 
of the sod. It should be gradually deepened until the practical limit 
of the ordinary plow is reached. All the land should be plowed, no 
cutting and covering, and the furrow should be turned over flat and 
pressed firmly down on the unbroken soil to promote quick rotting. If 
the plow is followed with a disc harrow, running lengthwise of the 
furrow, the rotting of the sod is hastened. The soil gets into con¬ 
dition most quickly when the prairie is broken after the grass has 
started well in the spring and while it is still growing. 
One of the cheapest ways to deepen some soils it to take advan¬ 
tage of the effects of frost. Just before the ground freezes in the 
fall, list it, going as deep as the lister will work and making the rows 
not over three feet apart. The furrows will soak up all the moisture 
that falls and the ground will freeze deeper than it would if left 
level. On warm days the large surface of exposed soil will thaw 
and in cold nights freeze. This alternate freezing and thawing 
granulates the soil, putting it in the best condition for absorbing 
moisture. 
The listed ground must be leveled and protected with a soil 
mulch as soon as the frost is out, as the evaporation from the large 
surface made by listing will be much greater than with level land. 
In twenty-one years of observation on the Plains the writer has 
never seen any increase in yield with any kind of crop from subsoiling 
land. The soil does not stay loose long enough after being subsoiled 
to be benefited. Where a farmer thinks that subsoiling will help his 
land, he should first test it on a small scale. 
Using deep rooted plants, such as alfalfa, brome grass and sweet 
clover, is a cheap method of deeply loosening hard soils and thereby 
improving their water-holding capacities. 
Decayed plant and animal matter increases the wateAholding 
power of the soil, and the dryer the season the stronger its influence. 
This material gives the soil a dark color and is very deficient in the 
soils of the Plains. The more the decayed roots of plants and the 
material from rotted manure is incorporated into dry lands soils, the 
greater will be the proportion of rainfall that is absorbed. 
It is specially important for storing moisture in dry land farming 
that every pound of manure produced on the farm should be spread on 
the fields, and yet most dry land farmers find that when they manure 
the land, the crop is reduced, sometimes for several years. When 
coarse manure is plowed under, it cuts off the connection between the 
