DRY LAND FARMING IN EASTERN COLORADO 
23 
When in doubt about the quantity of seed needed, use one-half the 
amount customary for humid sections. 
The following pounds per acre are suggested, but the amount 
should vary with the size of the seed and the condition of the soil: 
Wheat, 30 to 49. 
Barley, 35 to 50. 
Speltz, 45. 
Flax, 20. 
Millet, 10. 
Sorghum ddlled for forage, 25. 
Kafir :orn, drilled for forage, 25 to 
30. 
Milo Maize, for grain, 5 to 8. 
Corn, single seeds, 15 to t8 inches 
apart. 
Dwarf Essex Rape, 3 to 5, 
Brome Grass, 20. 
Alfalfa, for 'hay, 12 to 20. 
Alfalfa, cultivated for seed, 2 to 3. 
Sweet Clover, 20 to 25. 
Early seeding should be the rule, so as to take advantage of 
the moisture released when the ground thaws out and from that 
furnished by early rains. The development of the native vegetation 
is a good guide to the time for seeding. 
Broadcasting has no place in dry land farming. • It is a sure 
method of wasting seed and of producing many weak plants. Some 
seed is certain to be put in too deep and more too shallow. All seeds 
should be drilled and great care should be taken that single seeds are 
placed at equal distance apart. In careless drilling, where seed is 
bunched, there is not enough moisture to develop the plants, and the 
moisture in the bare spots is wasted. The writer has examined fields 
of corn in dry land sections where in every row there were spaces 
between stalks of from 5 to 13 feet, and other places where the corn 
was in bunches too thick to amount to anything. Wheat is often 
seeded as carelessly, and such planting insures a serious reduction in 
the crop no matter how favorable the season. 
It is self-evident that a good seed bed is essential in dry land 
farming, and yet it is common practice to put seed in cloddy, dry and 
loose soils. 
Sorghum is the surest drought resisting crop. The yield is from 
nothing to seven tons per acre, depending upon the condition of the 
soil at planting, the character of the seed and the rainfall. Early 
Amber is generally used. The seed may be put in with a grain drill, 
at the rate of 25 pounds per acre, or listed shallow, six pounds of 
seed per acre, and cultivated until the furrows are level full. It grows 
very slowly at first and should not be seeded until the ground is 
warm, usually May loth to June 15th. Seeded earlier the weeds get 
ahead of it. Sorghum should not be cut until the seeds begin to 
harden. When cut before it heads, sorghum is chiefly water and 
some vegetable fibre, and while very appetizing, furnishes little nour¬ 
ishment to stock. In years of plenty, sorghum can be stacked and 
kept until needed in times of drought. A cheap but rather wasteful 
way for harvesting it is to turn the cattle into the sorghum field when 
the seeds have become firm. Such a method of fall feeding will hold 
dairy cows up well in their milk. The cows should be well fed before 
being turned into the sorghum and left only one hour the first day. 
