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Parsons on Dry Farming

Parsons on Dry Farming

A Collection of Articles Written by
E. R. Parsons and Published in
The Dakota Farmer, Aberdeen,
S. D., during 1912 and 1913

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The Dakota Farmer
Aberdeen, S. D.
1913

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Copyright 1913
The Bushnell Co.

JAN -5 1914

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Contents

Page
Pee SLE ELEY) (lo coetepetare a a rk as dicen Wiehe ince ot oc slat If
Chapter I
Deep Plowing ...........-0 eee eee e cece eeeeeee 17
Chapter II
Reasons for Deep Plowing.............-.+-06- 23
Chapter III |
Practical Work of Deep Plowing......... bd nee 29
ChapterolV)
For and Against Deep Plowing.............--. 36
Chapter V
Cultivating and Mulching..............-2+0--- 44
Chapter VI
Subs NEOISEUTER 2 aici nei ential aie ita ai wlereicrals oats wis 52
Chapter VII
Dry Farm Fertilizing. ..........-.:eeeeeee eee 60
Chapter VIII ©
Packing and Fallowing.............++seeeeeee 70
Chapter) 1%
Roots ‘and Subsoils see eles walla 8 olaliel ou: as 79
Chapter X
The Pirst: Year on a: Dry’ Farm... 2.066. 20 ee 89
Chapter XI
Keep Track of Moisture...........--++seeeee: 97

Chapter XII
Dry Farming for Profit.............2eeeeeeeee 106

Contents— Continued

Chapter XIII

Supeestionsuor Dry Warmers...) ee de se
Chapter XIV

seed selection and Corn Breeding... 23 4.3.1 2s.
Chapter XV

Dasiine) Corton the: Dry Parmy 2)... sank sss
Chapter XVI

Winter Wheat on:the Dry Parm.). 2.0). 6. he,
Chapter XVII

ga wears With Jory; Parm: Alfatia.. 62)... eel

Chapter XVIII
Amber Cane, Milo, Kaffir Corn, Broom Corn....

Chapter XIX
ye, ‘Oats; Barley, Emmer,,Speltz..... 0s.

Chapter XX
May Wesaiel we lee SM eee oh Sa ks sli Siar a ar al cnet

Chapter XXI
Potatoes on the Dry Panrm o.y see ee ean

Chapter XXII
Beans, Peanuts.) Millet: Peas. sai sla eee ee

Chapter XXIII
Wines, Root: Crops, Sugar: Beets s.0 00 74 ie.

Chapter XXIV
Mine ry Harm Carden. oh Bes se cls a's declan inete

Chapter XXV
ey Harm: Poriculture nse NU SL wan tale

Chapter XXVI
Forestry in, the Arid (Reeions ..05. 1) \o2/e shel oles

Illustrations

TTA EC BE rey nena TANYA Soa le Be
Root Growth in Shallow Seed | Beds liei cs ond.

Root Growth of Corn in Deep Seed Bed Such as
May be Found on Deep-Tilled Land.......

Showing Effect of Top Growth in Deep and
Shallow Seed Beds. Seed in Each Box
SOW) Aty ames luaee 4 aa tube sei uh et

High Altitude Corn Land Plowed 12 Inches
Deep on Farm of E. R. Parsons, Colorado
SRP EMOGN EV SE ENA e800 Leah 2h Chee ULLAL Ts le aa Ta

Winter Wheat, May Ist, on Sod Broken 8 Inches,
Subnuches aad 3. Inches) Weep.) Note, the
Excellent Growth Made on the 8-Inch
pe et Oe ai) 02) Sins wm rei lene ag ena lane ees aoe

Orchard of Yellow Transparent on the Dry Farm
of E. R. Parsons, Eastern Colorado. Aver-
ape dnaimrall TA On, TS) Pmenes sii oli oldie sbsbanam

Ben Davis Orchard on the Farm of E. R.
Pai Seas CHOPRA Oy Gaels: a iiin tala aial uoav aca

Dry Farm Flower Bed and Silver Poplars, E. R.
eC SCS aR U ec ie's ie ahaa: a ela) seemaiuia lew Miele avele

Locust Trees on Dry Farm of E. R. Parsons,
[E25 foc 2 PAM Gia ocr) 5 Coe 7S a

80)

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128 \

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Introduction

O produce profitable crops under a limited rain-
fall, it becomes necessary for the farmer to
possess a thorough knowledge of the principles

and practices of soil moisture conservation. A very
large portion of The Dakota Farmer Empire comes
under the classification of semi-arid land.

That a wider distribution may be given of
facts relating to the actual practices of dry farming
and the compiling of these in more convenient form
is the reason for the publication of this book. It is a
reprint of a series of articles written by Mr. E. R.
Parsons for The Dakota Farmer and published in its
columns during 1912 and 1913.

For many years The Dakota Farmer has been
keenly on the lookout for men who have most success-
fully overcome the obstacles of farming in dry areas.
There are many of these men. They have blazed the
way to profitable farming and better living in all the
great northwest. It is for us to follow where they
lead. :

Of these men, Mr. Parsons, by virtue of his splen-
did scientific training, his tenacity of purpose and his
forty years of practical experience stands out as the
premier exponent of practical dry farming in America.

With his knowledge of the subject is coupled the
gift to impart it to others in a style as entertaining as
it is characteristic.

Mr. Parsons is an original thinker and investi-
gator. He has not been bound by precedent or hoary
theories. He has successfully worked out the problems
of profitable crop production on his own lands and
under an average annual precipitation of fifteen inches.

The reader will be interested in knowing more of
the man Parsons and what he has accomplished. He

12 PARSONS ON DRY FARMING

was born in England in 1854. His education was prin-
cipally along scientific lines. A few years after leaving
college he went to South Africa and engaged in dry
farming. The precipitation ran from Io to 20 inches.
He found the settlers raising small crops on 4- and 5-
inch plowing, using four oxen to the plow. Parsons put
eight oxen on his plow and began to raise double what
the neighbors did. The principal crops at that time
were oats for horse forage, cut in the dough, barley,
potatoes and corn fodder.

But let Parsons tell his own story. He can do it
better than we can:

“T purchased some lucern seed (alfalfa) to test it
for that country. Nobody there could get a stand, but
it was raised in the wet districts farther north. I found
the trouble was shallow plowing. Put ten oxen onto
the plow, got it down 10 inches, obtained a magnificent
stand of alfalfa first try. Got a herd of mixed stock for
dairy farming and sold milk for 25 cents a quart bottle.
The natives which could be hired for a few dollars a
month, and all the corn meal they could eat, did all the
work carrying the milk and other produce to town in
baskets and selling it. Did well there until 1877, when
I sold out and volunteered for the Zulu war.

“Left for England after the war and came to Colo-
rado in 1880. Rented a ranch to try out dry farming,
raised large crops of seed corn and navy beans, which
brought the top of the market in Denver. Could not
persuade anyone they were raised without irrigation,
either had to shut up or lose my reputation for veracity.

“Tn 1883 took a trip to California, found them rais-
ing fruit and everything on 20 inches of rainfall and
sometimes only Io.

“Noted that the Portugese and Italians were plant-
ing grape vine cuttings on the dry hillsides of Los
Angeles where they considered themselves lucky if
they got 13 inches of rainfall. These cuttings were

INTRODUCTION 13

2 feet long and put down in the ground until only
about 3 inches stuck out. After the wet season was
over nearly go per cent would be growing vines. Some
of these vineyards are still alive and producing four to
five tons per acre. Came back to Colorado in 1886, and
homesteaded. This was the beginning of my Parker
ranch 20 miles south of Denver. Purchased a big
team in Denver and started to break land 9 inches
deep, sometimes getting over only one-half an acre
a day.
Deep Plowing Was a Joke.

“Neighbors would come over and josh about it,
which I rather enjoyed, leading them on and asking
their opinion about things.

“Next year the joke was all on my side, for the
corn grew 8 feet high and the grain outweighed the
fodder, something which none of them had ever seen
before. The wheat was 5 feet high and some of the
rye 7. That fall I bought cows and hogs, also some
stands of bees, and the next spring I put in five acres
of alfalfa.

Hogs and Poultry Paid.

“T had already planted a family orchard, giving
everything plenty of room. The hogs ran to the rye
stacks all winter and with the help of a little corn and
alfalfa I was enabled to sell hogs every month or so
at from 10 to 20 dollars apiece. We fed the chickens
all the wheat they could eat at night and mashes in
the morning; hauling bones off the prairie for dessert.
The chickens (about 100) almost paid the grocery bill.
There were no creameries in those days, so we sold our
butter in town. We had the usual luck with stock;
the horses were struck by lightning, the best cows
would hunt mud holes and commit suicide, the calves
would try to get colic or diarrhea, the bees would get
foul brood and the cat would have fits. As soon as we
began to feed the cows alfalfa their suicidal tendencies

14 PARSONS ON DRY FARMING

vanished, they began to have more confidence in dry
ranching, raised calves and attended strictly to busi-
ness. We cleaned out the foul brood and shut the cat
up during the grasshopper season.

“I often regretted I did not keep books, but we
were absolutely too busy; but every time we went to
town we took in a load of hogs or butter or honey or
veal or something, and every few years we bought
some land until our ranch grew from 160 acres to 1200.

Developed a High Altitude Corn.

“T took the White Australian seed corn as a basis,
crossing it gradually with large white eastern varieties,
using them as the male parent until I had an accli-
mated, high altitude corn which would go with deep
plowing over 40 bushels to the acre at 6,000 feet. I
was always able to sell all the seed of this corn I could
raise. I am not raising this for seed now; I have too
many other things to do, but if anyone wishes to try it
they can obtain it from its chief Colorado raiser, Frank
J. Kohler, (altitude 6,300 feet).

Kept Increasing Alfalfa Area.

“Every few years I planted more and more alfalfa.
I raise it on sandy loam, adobe and gulch sand. I took
the precaution, however, to fertilize the gulch sand
with about fifty loads of manure to the acre before
planting; this paid me well, because nothing else would
grow on it, but the alfalfa took hold, got down to
moisture after three years, and converted a desolate
sand bar into a beautiful field. The larger part of my
alfalfa is grown, however, on hillsides above dry clay
reefs with no water at 100 feet that we know of.

Planted Commercial Orchard.

“In 1894 I commenced planting an orchard, and
have now nearly twenty acres in apples, cherries,
plums and currants. I have never seen the sour cher-
ries grow better or bear handsomer fruit anywhere.

INTRODUCTION Nai

The profits from this orchard, with every other year
or more a bad year climatically, runs into thousands.
I never ship anything, the people come from four coun-
ties to get the fruit‘to put up for winter. Mr. N. P.
Gould, Pomologist U. S. Department of Agriculture,
writes of my Ben Davis apples: ‘Incidentally I am
elad to state that these apples are very interesting to
us. I do not know that I have seen fully matured Ben
Davis apples from a dry land orchard before. I had
rather expected that grown under dry land conditions,
the texture would be more woody and the flavor even
flatter than is common with the Ben Davis, but this
does not appear to be the case. The texture compares
favorably with apples grown in definitely recognized
Ben Davis regions, and as to dessert quality, as already
indicated, it seems to me that it is unusually high for
the variety.’
Forty Years of Dry Farming Experience.

“Thus far I have been dry farming for close on
forty years; it is the only branch of agriculture that I
have got to the bottom of, and that only by persistent
work and experiment in odd moments and Sundays.
The most useful implement I have for this purpose is
the soil auger. With this I can bring up a sample of
dirt from any depth in the subsoil and by making note
of the percentage of moisture at different depths, can
ascertain what amount of water is held by any cubic
block of land; what the moisture is doing; whether it
is moving or standing still; increasing or fading away.
By comparing the moisture in a vacant block with that
in a block occupied by a tree I can calculate the amount
used up by that tree; the same method can be applied
to any plant or crop.

| Always An Investigator.

“T also find a microscope a very useful adjunct for
research work. My operations have all been based on
a knowledge of what is and what isn’t; have never

16 PARSONS ON DRY FARMING

been much impressed by fads or the systems of men
who guess at things. A single dry year does not
bother me at all, but a second one does. My worst
year was in I9II, with only 6 inches of moisture. The
year before was 9 and the roots left only about 8 to
10% of moisture in the subsoil. In order to get the
late corn and sorghum started in 1911 we had to plow
furrows down to the damp soil and plant in the bottom
of them. The feed crops averaged only about a ton to
the acre; the neighbors had nothing. The principal
factors in my success have been my complete mastery
of the art of plowing, and the interest I take naturally
in all branches of science. Beside my ranch at Parker,
Colorado, I have two dry farms in California, where I
find that infinite variety in the vegetable world so
fascinating to the student of nature.”

Mr. Parsons is an active member of the Interna-
tional Dry Farming Congress, the Royal Agricultural
Society of England and the National Geographical
Society, Washington, D. C.

HE DAKOTA FARMER pos-
sesses an abiding faith in the
future of this great Northwest.

It sincerely believes that the intelli-
gent application of the known best
methods of soil moisture storage and
conservation to the fertile lands of the
Dakotas, Montana and Wyoming will
insure a prosperous country and a
land of contented and happy people.

iY

Parsons on Dry Farming

CHAPTER I
Deep Plowing

HERE is only one solution to the problem of
how to dry farm and always raise crops.
Plow deep. Those who go under are the ones
who persist in dodging the issue.

There is no doubt that crops can be made in wet
years by plowing only four or five inches, packing the
ground solid and then cultivating all summer to loosen
it up again, but does it pay?

i Those who indulge in this style of surface farming
usually pay out in dry years every cent they make in
wet years for the grocery bill and to keep their stock
alive. Intensive cultivation may to some extent coun-
teract the evil effects of shallow plowing but can never
fully compensate for lack of deep tilling at the start.

For instance, a crop of corn planted in land
plowed 12 inches deep and cultivated two or three
times will yield twice as much as the one planted on a
6-inch seed bed and cultivated all summer. This is
where economy comes in, for every operation in the
field is so much to the expense account.

_ When a farmer defends shallow plowing, his own
field will always give him away, for the best grain, the
finest corn, is always found where the plow went in
the deepest or the prairie dogs did some subsoiling.

Why should a man spade his garden a foot deep
and then go out and plow 6 inches? Can anybody
explain the philosophy of such proceedings?

18 PARSONS ON DRY FARMING

When a gardener wishes to raise a large plant in
the green-house, would he put it in a 6-inch pot or a
3-inch?

We have never been able yet to find a soil or a
country where deep plowing did not pay, and the drier
the country the deeper the plowing. How is it that
an old soil in use for hundreds of years in Belgium,
France, England, Germany and other countries can
double and treble our average yield per acre? The
principal reason is because they plow from g to 15
and sometimes 20 inches, while we think we are doing
wonders if we scratch the ground 6.

One of our great sugar factories pondered over
the fact that while Germany and Hungary were rais-
ing from 15 to 30 tons of beets to the acre, our farmers
with virgin soil and abundance of irrigation were rais-
ing only 10. They sent all the way to Germany for
an expert, and when he arrived this is what he said:
“How can you expect to raise a 12-inch beet on 6-inch
plowing?”

Why is Standard So Low?

Why is our standard of plowing so low? Because
those farmers who first went west from the coast
states lost the art of plowing in the middle west where
crops planted in the richest of virgin soil and rained
on every few days would grow whether the land was
plowed or not. Therefore to find good plowing we
must hark back to the old New England states where
the conditions were not so favorable. Connecticut is
probably the deepest plowing state of any and having
a cool climate is by nature not as well adapted to corn
raising as any of the central or river states; yet ac-
cording to the U. S. Department of Agriculture we
find that last year it averaged per acre, 48 bushels of
corn, against 14 in Kansas, 26 in Missouri, and so on.
In 1910, these averages were 53 for Connecticut, 19 for
Kansas, 33 for Missouri.

DEEP PLOWING 19

Wherever deep plowing is introduced into the
west, we always meet with the same objections as fan-
tastic as they are absurd. It will ruin the soil. Our
subsoil is too hard. We have to plow it very carefully
and very shallow to get the Indian out of the soil.
(This from Montana.) The subsoil is no good, it
comes up in lumps. If we plow it, we can never pack
it and if we pack it we can never plow it. The subsoil
is sour and poisonous and hard besides; better leave
it alone. We have a different soil in this state, you dare
not plow it deep.

This last objection, of course, is the greatest non-
sense of all. No state or district has a monopoly of
any wonderful variety of soil that cannot be plowed.
As the Germans say, a soil which will not respond to
deep plowing is not an agricultural soil and we might
add to this certainly not a dry farm soil. There is no
such body of soil that anyone in the west has ever
heard of yet, although a few, very few, such streaks
might possibly be found where the joint clay or
gopher clay comes too close to the surface, but such
odds and ends can be left for pasture.

Soils Ready for the Plow.

Since the great water period thousands or millions
of years ago which provided the foundation for our
upper layers, the soil has thoroughly dried out and
the space originally occupied by water is now taken
up by air, which sometimes represents as much as
50% of the bulk in a cube of dirt. The consequence is
our soils are sweet and ready for the plow; we have
no sour lands, no wildness or Indian to get out. This
is an imported idea belonging to the waterlogged
lands of the eastern states and has no place whatever
in dry farming. Some of the largest crops I have ever
made, and I have made many in the last 35 years, have
come off sod broken a foot deep. The upper layers of
our soils in Dakota and other adjoining states are

20 PARSONS ON DRY FARMING

many of them glacial drift which is fair soil and can be
plowed any depth, but above these boulder clays we
sometimes have a foot or two or even more of humus
wash loam, the richest and finest of soil for small
grain and corn. These soils can be plowed any depth;
if the subsoil is hard, a subsoiler can be used, but get
down at any cost; it will pay in the end. Deep tilling,
turning up and working the whole thing, is better than
plowing a few inches and then subsoiling, but subsoil-
ing will open up the soil for the deep tilling later on,
in case of a very hard subsoil.

As we go farther west we encounter the light ash
and lava soils as they are called and wherever there is
a good growth of sage brush cleared off, these soils
are immensely rich.

Many a man is grubbing along on such a soil
plowing 3 or 4 inches and half starving his family
because he does not know that if he understood the
value of plowing he could raise 60 bushels to the acre
instead of 10 in wet years and probably a good 25
in dry years.

Some of the adobe soils are rich; some are not;
it depends on their origin. The farmers call every-
thing sticky, adobe or gumbo. The joint clays which
sometimes come to the surface belong to the cretace-
ous period when there was little or no organic matter
to afford humus and are consequently of little value
for agriculture. The glacial boulder clays, however,
out of which much of our reddish brown and chocolate-
colored adobes seemed to be formed, are rich in min-
eral plant food and when the sod is plowed under deep
will contain a fair amount of humus.

These lands need deep plowing in the fall to allow
of weathering, deep breaking to save the humus and
plenty of working. Corn and grain crops do not grow
as high as they will on a sandy loam, but the corn is
usually larger and the grain heads heavier. The best

DEEP PLOWING 21

and most practical method of tilling these lands will
be given in an article later on. Many failures in deep
plowing occur from plowing when the ground is half
dry and then planting it before it has a chance to settle |
and acquire moisture. In dry farming, land should
never be planted immediately after plowing.

If you do not give the rains a chance to drive the
air out, the crop will burn out every time. If you
cannot plow in the fall, then plow your corn and sor-
ghum land in March and your winter wheat land in
May, then no packing will be necessary except in the
seed row and the press drill or planter wheels will do
that. The idea of buying an expensive packer when
nature can do it for you is absurd. On the other hand
if you are bound to plant the land anyway as soon as
plowed, then harrow and disc alternately until fairly
solid, but it is always advisable to fallow the land if
only for a few weeks or a month or two. In dry farm-
ing we need air on the surface for weathering soil and
developing plant food, but not in the ground, for a dry
over aerated soil is the most deadly enemy of dry
farm crops. A good rule to follow if you raise small
grain is this: Plow in the fall for spring grain and in
the spring for fall grain.

For corn, plow deep in the fall and leave it rough
to weather and accumulate moisture all winter, then
work up deep and thoroughly before listing or plant-
ing in May or June.

Little Excuse for Poor Plowing.

There is really very little excuse for poor plowing
in the west for our soils are admirably adapted to deep
plowing.

The glacial epoch has given us an extra layer of
good soil exactly where we most need it and for this
reason the great bulk of our land can be plowed almost
any’ depth which is the most important factor in dry
farming. The secret of obtaining a heavy crop on dry

22 PARSONS ON DRY FARMING

farm land is to root the crops deeply in the subsoil.
This can be done in one way only, by keeping it wet
enough so that the roots can enter. If you plow Io or
12 inches the adjoining subsoil will be better protected
and much damper than when you plow only 6 inches;
in fact, on many shallow plowed fields the roots never
get below the top 6 inches and the crop amounts to
little or nothing.

In deep ground the subsoil is always in condition,
for under a seed bed, Io or 12 inches deep, the evapor-
ation is almost nil, and once the water is absorbed into
the subsoil it stays there until the crops take it out.
If every dry farmer in the west were to increase his
depth of plowing from 6 to 12 inches, the railroads
could not haul the stuff.

CHAPTER II

Reasons for Deep Plowing

RY farming has been styled “The Conservation
D of Moisture.” It should be styled “The Accu-
mulation and Conservation of Moisture.”

You cannot conserve anything that you do not
have, therefore the prevention of run-off, puddles and
surface evaporation generally, together with the prep-
aration of the ground for quick absorption may be
termed the accumulation of moisture, the first half of
dry farming.

The principal factor in accumulation is deep plow-
ing; the principal factor in conservation is mulching.

Why does deep plowing accumulate more moisture
than shallow plowing? For the same reason that a bar-
rel will catch more rain than a bucket; the receptacle is
larger—tiz2 inches will hold twice as much water as 6.

The subsoil takes water very slowly because it is
solid and compact and the interstitial spaces are small,
therefore, during heavy rains, as soon as the plowed
soil is soaked down to the subsoil it begins to run off
or to form puddles. This is what we want to prevent,
and there is only one way to doit. Plow deeper and
increase the depth of the seed bed.

It might be argued that there is seldom enough
moisture to waterlog a field plowed 6 inches, but we
find that nearly every year there is one such instance
and sometimes two. When a field already contains
moisture from previous showers, the torrential rains
of July and August will very soon soak it to the limit,
and the same may be said of the soft, wet snows of
spring, when the precipitation of four or five weeks
has been known to amount to 4 or 5 inches which
would very easily soak up a seed bed of 15 inches.

24 PARSONS ON DRY FARMING

We cannot afford to lose a single inch of this
water ; for the rest of the year may be dry! Thus we
see that this function of deep plowed land, that of
quickly absorbing torrential rains or excessive snow-
fall is a most important one in dry farming.

Moisture in Subsoil.

Another function of the deeply plowed seed bed
never touched upon by agriculturists is that of acting
as a mulch to the subsoil. The old idea that plants
lived on the top soil and the moisture came up out of
the subsoil to supply their roots has long since been
abandoned by sane agriculturists, for we find that
water in the subsoil stays where it is put, and that
under 12-inch plowing, after making several hundred
tests in all varieties of soil, the loss seldom exceeds
1% a month and in some cases is almost nil. This, of
course, is on fallow land with no crop growing.

In order to be thoroughly satisfied on these
points, the farmer should make his own experiments
and not trust to the say-so of anyone who may be
quoting some laboratory experiments which do not
apply, or some out-of-date college book of the days of
Johnston and Liebig.

It is a very simple matter with a ground auger
or even a pick and shovel to get a sample of soil at
any time at any depth, then weigh it and bake the
moisture out of it and weigh it again. The difference
in weight will, of course, show the amount of moisture
it originally contained, and by making different tests
at separate dates at a variety of depths, a correct esti-
mate can be formed of what the water in the soil is
doing. The farmer will soon find out that one experi-
ment in the field is worth a dozen in the laboratory,
and by this means will become acquainted with natural
physics at first hand.

The advantage of deep plowing to mulch the sub-
soil is found in the fact that when it is kept moist and

REASONS FOR DEEP PLOWING 25

in proper condition, the roots of crops will go into it
from two to ten feet.

From tests in the field we find that the normal
length of the roots of small grain is from 3 to 4 feet,
of corn from 3 to Io feet, but in 6-inch plowing, in a
dry year, when the subsoil is not properly mulched,
the roots do not penetrate it at all, for it is too dry,
and we often have this spectacle of man trying to raise
a crop on 6 inches which needs 4 feet. Is it any won-
der he fails?

Packing will not help him, cultivating day and
night and Sundays will not help him, and the only
satisfaction he can get is to join the chorus of wails
about the crust under the mulch, which, by the way,
cannot injure his crops if he plows deeply and main-
tains a loose mulch on the surface.

The surface farmer who plows 6 inches or less
and pulls off medium crops in wet years by dint of
excesSive cultivation, and then pays out in the dry
years what he made in the wet ones, often wonders
why a few inches of rain makes such a tremendous
difference to him, while the crops of his neighbor,
who plows Io or 12 inches, always seem to be good.

The reason is, in a wet year his subsoil becomes
wet enough for crops, for the roots to penetrate; in a
dry it does not; hence the difference, but the subsoil
of his neighbor, who plows deep, is always in con-
dition, for it carries over moisture from one year to
another.

From the foregoing it can be readily understood
that dry farm crops are made largely from the subsoils.

Extraordinary, you say. This gives me altogether
a new idea of dry farming, but are our subsoils good
enough for this?

Subsoils Rich.

They most assuredly are, for in western America
we find the best and richest subsoils almost of the

26 PARSONS ON DRY FARMING

world, and they can be worked by any man, or at least
by any man that is a man, for with our 2oth century
implements we can break up anything but solid rock.

Hardness in a subsoil does not necessarily imply
lack of fertility ; shale and argillaceous deposits formed
from pre-historic river mud, when fined down and
weathered, may raise magnificent crops. Without
deep plowing it is almost impossible to raise satisfac-
tory crops in a dry year, and without crops in a dry
year it is foolish to imagine that dry farming can be
made to pay. The philosophy of it is this: When the
farmer plows 6 inches and cultivates his row-crops 3
inches deep, he has then 3 inches of mulch, leaving 3
for the surface roots. After three or four weeks dry
weather the mulch becomes dried out, then if the
drouth continues, the dirt under the mulch begins to
dry and form a crust. Then comes the question, how
much soil is left for surface roots?

The plowing was 6 inches, take off 3 for the mulch
and 1 or 2 more for the crust under the mulch. This
leaves about I inch for the surface roots. Is it any
wonder crops dry out with 6-inch plowing?

The farmer, however, who plows 12 inches will
have seven inches left for the roots of his crop, and
under these conditions no drouth can crowd them, for
after the first 5 inches are dry, the drouth line deepens
very slowly indeed.

Deep Seed Bed Important.

A deep seed bed for the surface roots is a most
important item in raising a heavy crop. The surface,
or rather the top foot contains, as a rule, most of the
humus, and it is the humus which supplies a large
proportion of ready-made plant food, therefore, a deep
seed bed means quick and luxuriant growth. Another
point we must not lose sight of is that the quicker
the roots get down the less danger there is from
drouth injury.

REASONS FOR DEEP PLOWING 27

The tap roots which go into the subsoil supply
the plant. with moisture and mineral plant food, but
the surface roots which exploit the seed bed find all
elements necessary to plant life, particularly the nitro-
gen, which, owing to the habits of the nitrifying bac-
teria is found principally in the top 8 or 9g inches.
Land plowed Io or 12 inches holds its tilth much
longer than shallow land, and is often mellow and
loose on the surface at maturing time which is a tre-
mendous advantage at the period of the plumping up
and filling of grain.

Shallow land settles, runs together, cracks and
bakes very easily, requiring constant cultivation to
keep it in condition, and many a crop planted on such
land which made vigorous growth at the start and
promised a heavy yield dried up instead of ripening,
yielding a little shriveled grain in the place of a boun-
tiful harvest.

After land has been plowed deeply for several sea-
sons, one dry year makes very little difference to
crops, but a second, following on the heels of the first,
is a more or less serious matter, and may cut the crops
a fourth or a half, according to the quantity of mois-
ture it has been possible to store in the subsoil.

Two of the driest consecutive years ever experi-
enced on my ranch were 1893-94. In 1893 our crops
were very little below the average. In the spring of
1894 the surface was so dry it was almost impossible
to start the crops, and in order to get down to moist
dirt we had to plow out the corn rows and plant the
corn (after soaking it) in the wet subsoil at the bottom
of the furrow. By this means we obtained a good
stand, and with about 2% inches precipitation during
the growing season we made a fair crop, but not so
good as 1893.

There was a little snow which raised the moisture
content of the upper subsoil to about 15% by planting

28 PARSONS ON DRY FARMING

time, but below this there was 3 feet of moist subsoil
containing from 10% to 12% only.

The 2% inches of rainfall came in moderate show-
ers without reaching the subsoil, but was of great
advantage in moistening up the seed bed.

Thus we see that without the subsoil moisture
accumulated and conserved by deep plowing, it would
have been utterly impossible to have raised any corn
in that year; in fact, none was raised by the old meth-
ods of plowing 6 or 7 inches.

Dry Farming Not New.

Although dry farming is supposed to be a new
thing, it is actually as old as the earth, and in western
America dates back to the original settlers. There are
many who have made their fortunes at it, although
few hear about them, but these men were all and every
one deep plowers. One of the most noted of these is
G. L. Farrel, of Smithfield, Utah, who, on an average
precipitation of 15 inches, raises 400 acres of wheat
every year which goes from 40 to 45 bushels per acre.

There are hundreds of others around him, who,
on the same land, raise 20, but he plows 9 inches and
subsoils down to 15, while they plow 6 or 7, put in a
much larger acreage and in dry years get nothing.

In Montana we have Norman Holden, of Dillon,
who plows from 8 to 12 inches and raises 250 bushels
of potatoes to the acre.

In the dry streak in the south last year a boy
succeeded in raising 202 bushels of corn to the acre on
old played-out land by plowing 20 inches deep and
fertilizing in the row.

CHAPTER III

Practical Work of Deep Plowing

HAT is the best depth to plow? This depends
somewhat on the soil and climate, but
largely on the economic status of the ranch

in question. Taking a medium heavy loam soil as the
standard, the difference between 6-inch plowing and
to will usually double the crop.

The difference is more marked, as a rule, in heavy
soil. After a depth of 10 inches has been reached there
is still a gain in yield for every extra inch up to 20, but
the question is, will it pay for the extra work?

This is a problem the individual farmer must
settle for himself. When he has horses eating their
heads off in the barn it will pay every time to double
up and plow as deeply as possible, but if on the other
hand he has to borrow or hire to plow an extra inch or
two the returns might not show much of a profit
above the outlay.

The only experience worth accepting in a case of
this sort is that of farmers who have made good at
dry farming, raised their families and have cash in
the bank; in other words, those who have made money
at it or are well fixed.

We find that those who plow 8 or g inches are
better fixed and have nicer homes than those who
plow 5 or 6, but those who have made a minimum of
9 or 10 are sending their sons and daughters to college,
and driving fine horses and taking trips.

Our opinion is that the small farmer should make
Io inches the minimum depth. The reason is this:
This depth can be reached with nearly every walking
plow of good make by taking off the gauge wheel and
setting her down to the beam, with three heavy horses

30 PARSONS ON DRY FARMING |

not less than eleven or twelve hundred each, doing
the plowing. For this work a 12-inch plow can be
used or even a 14-inch provided the horses are heavy
enough or the soil easy.

The difference between riding on a sulky and
walking in the furrow may mean to the farmer the
difference between poverty and comfort. It is the
work of almost one horse to haul the farmer around,
and this means at least a loss of about 3 inches on the
plowing. This 3 inches may cause a reduction in the
crop of 10 or more bushels per acre. The price of 10
or more bushels on every acre of an ordinary farm
would not only take the owner to New York for in-
stance for a trip; but also hire him taxicabs to ride
about in while he is there. The farmer who owns
hundreds of acres of plowed land, has plenty of horses
or Owns an engine is in quite a different class to the
small farmer who owns only two or three horses, for
he can place in the hands of his help all the power
they can handle, but he also must determine for him-
self his economic co-efficient in soil inches. This can
be very easily done by keeping record of different
fields plowed variable depths with the expense account
attached thereto, and will soon show the most profit-
able depth to plow. This may be Io, 16 or even 20
inches. Some tremendous crops of corn running as
high as 200 bushels to the acre have been raised on 20-
inch plowing, but we have no record of the expenses.

One or More Operations?

The next question we have to consider is: Does
it pay better to plow the whole depth in one operation
or to plow first and follow in the same furrow with a
subsoiler? In ordinary good deep western soil, if the
same piece of land is plowed say 15 or 16 inches with
a deep tilling machine, it will yield more to the acre
than when plowed say 9 inches and subsoiled down to
I5 or 16.

PRACTICAL WORK OF DEEP PLOWING 31

For the same reason four horses on a deep tilling
machine or plow doing fair work for their weight will
raise more to the acre (other things being equal) than
two of the same horses plowing and two following
with a subsoiler.

Another point in economy: The two teams need
two drivers, necessitating the cost of an extra man for
subsoiling. It may be said, however, in favor of sub-
soiling that sometimes a very tough hard-pan may
necessitate something of the kind the first year of deep
plowing. These considerations and many others can
best be determined by the man behind the plow. In
order to increase the depth of plowing is it better to
go down an inch or so at a time or to plow the whole
extra depth at once?

Provided the soil is all right, the sooner the
farmer gets the benefit of his work the better for him.
What sense is there in waiting five years to get down
5 inches when he can get down in one? The trouble
is many of our farmers do not want to do their work
until the last minute and then plant immediately.
This should never be done in dry farming. If the sub-
soil is hard and refractory it must be given time to
mellow down, and nothing is better for this than the
winter-fallow. During an average winter the lumps
will all soak up with the melting snows, then freeze
and crumble with the thaw, leaving perhaps a few
clods for the disc to dispose of which is easily done
after a spring storm. In the meantime the lower
layers are settling with every storm and the deepest
kind of plowing will be ready for crops by planting
time unless the winter is very dry.

All land should, as far as possible, be plowed
ahead of time and fallowed for several months, but a
month or a week is better than nothing. By doing
this we not only accumulate moisture, but the land
packs itself which is immensely superior to artificial

Be PARSONS ON DRY FARMING

packing; for all rollers and packers, whether you call
them subsurface packers or not, must of necessity pack
the surface more than the lower layers, but when
nature does the packing the deepest dirt packs the first
on account of the weight above it; in other words the
packer packs from the surface down; nature packs
from the bottom up.

Handling Sod Lands.

The immediate success of the new settler often de-
pends on the way he handles his sod. If he breaks his
land grandfather’s way, plows it 2 or 3 inches and runs
a slanted harrow over it, unless the season is very favor-
able, he will soon become disgusted with the results,
for planting seed on chunks of shallow plowed sod is
very much like trying to raise a crop on a rag-carpet.

In our western country we usually have a good
sod full of decayed roots, the humus of ages. On this
humus mainly depends the chance of raising succes-
sive grain crops without the expense of purchasing
fertilizers; it is the life of the soil. Should we fool-
ishly and recklessly, deliberately destroy it, by expos-
ing it to the sun and the oxygen of the atmosphere
which burn it up and dissipate it into gases, in order
to make the work a little easier for ourselves?

Can any sane man doubt that the only proper way
to handle this sod, this humus, nature’s gift to the
farmer, is to plow it under deep where it can rot in a
moist environment, and where every particle of it can
be absorbed and conserved by the soil for future use?

In the fall of 1887, on my Colorado ranch, we
plowed ten acres of sod Io inches deep, left it rough
all winter to fill up with moisture, and disced and har-
rowed it in the spring until the surface was as fine
as old land. On this we planted corn, cultivated three
times keeping every weed out. The yield was a ton
and a half of fodder to the acre and thirty-three bush-
els of corn.

PRACTICAL WORK OF DEEP PLOWING 33

A neighbor prepared a piece of the same soil in
the spring, breaking his sod grandfather’s way; he
could not cultivate it on account of the chunks; his
yield was a quarter of a ton of fodder and three bush-
els of corn.

The second year we cross plowed, again 10 inches
deep, discing thoroughly to disintegrate the last of the
sod. Our yield that year was forty-seven bushels.
Our neighbor of the slanted harrow got down 5 inches,
managed to cultivate six times against our three and
raised eleven bushels.

How Often to Plow Deep.

Is it necessary to plow deeply every year? It
certainly pays, but it is better to do so every once in
a while than not at all. Some recommend deep plow-
ing for a corn crop and then in the fall running in a
crop of winter wheat on the stubble. This, of course,
is gambling with nature; sometimes in wet years a
catch crop can be made, but more often not; but if hay
is needed, rye can be planted in this manner with every
chance of success. It can also be planted for a fertil-
izer and plowed under in the spring.

Implements to Use.

The greatest implement for dry farmers and one
which in time will place this industry on a perma-
nently profitable basis is the deep tilling machine in-
vented by Geo. Spalding. It plows from Io to 20
inches deep, one disc working behind the other, both
in a single furrow tearing the sod to pieces and bury-
ing it out of sight, leaving a beautiful smooth seed bed
with the humus at just the right depth for the roots.
This implement, of course, requires plenty of horse-
power, which the small farmer does not always pos-
sess, but any ordinary walking plow properly pointed,
with the gauge wheel left off, will go down Io inches
if properly maneuvered; such as the Canton, Goy-
ernor, Oliver, John Deere and others.

34 PARSONS ON DRY FARMING

The ordinary disc plow may also be used in con-
junction with these as an emergency plow, especially
when adobe or ordinary soils are too wet or too dry
for good work by the moldboard, but in no case should
land be plowed continually with the single disc plow,
for this implement scatters the dirt too much without
completely turning it and for this reason if the soil is
to be kept in the best condition, must be alternated
with the moldboard.

Deep vs. Shallow Plowing.

Deep plowing is the key to success in dry farm-
ing, and every failure may be attributed mainly to
shallow plowing, and the complete evidence of this is
to be found in the history of the early settlers, for not
a single deep plower ever went broke or left the
country.

There is no doubt that deep plowing is to some
extent hard work, but not nearly so hard as imagina-
tion represents it to be, and much the easier in the
end than surface farming which depletes the soil,
wears out the farmer and gets nowhere.

Simplified Dry Farming.

There are hundreds of dry farmers or rather thou-
sands who plow about 6 inches, pack, disc, harrow and
cultivate day and night and Sundays and lose every
year in wasted effort enough to keep themselves and
families in luxury the year round.

The dry farmer has no expensive outlay, no water
to pay for, no ditches to mend, no rheumatism to
doctor, yet he gets irrigation prices for everything he
raises; surely he can afford to plow and even if he is
short of horses, he can double up with a neighbor to
the advantage of both.

We are glad to see that deep tillage is taking hold
in the west and several colonies and communities
which have adopted it in Colorado, notably at Cathan
and Limon, are raising the finest of crops even in dry

PRACTICAL WORK OF DEEP PLOWING 35

years, are becoming prosperous, making money and
booming their land values in consequence.

In a recent article coming to our notice, Mr. Cyril
Hopkins advances the theory that if we plow deep and
raise big crops we will exhaust the soil. We would
be glad if this gentleman would tell us what to do
with the soil except raise crops on it; he reminds us
of the man who owned a gold mine and was afraid
to develop it for fear of running out of gold.

These western soils are rich in mineral plant food,
in fact we might say are made up of nothing else, and
when we consider that the mineral part of plants and
vegetation generally is only about 6% of the whole, it
is ridiculous to speak about using up the soil in this
generation, so long as we conserve the humus—this
is the point, and the only method ever discovered of
doing this is deep plowing; plowing under the sod as
deeply as possible at the start and after that as much
of the stubble as can be afforded. The abandoned
farms of New England which everyone has heard
about were ruined by shallow plowing, surface farm-
ing using up the humus, raising a little stuff on the
cream of the soil without adequate plowing; soil rob-
bery; burning the candle at both ends.

These farms are now being sought after by
modern agriculturists and redeemed by deep plowing
and the introduction of humus, and some of them are
in better condition today than ever.

Shallow plowing destroys fertility by burning up
the humus which is found mostly on or near the sur-
face. Deep plowing preserves the soil by burying the
humus where its gases are absorbed by the dirt instead

of the atmosphere and thereby conserved.

CHAPTER IV

For and Against Deep Plowing

N western America we call anything over 8 inches
deep plowing, but in other agricultural countries
of the world this is just ordinary plowing. Eugene

Grubb, after he made a tour of agricultural Europe,
came back and said that Americans were the worst
farmers in the world.

In England, France and Germany, there are 700
different soils; they plow about 9 to 10 inches all soils,
and every once in a while 16 to 20 inches, especially in
the fall for weathering purposes, and, of course, they
beat us all to pieces on acre crop averages.

Prof. Tower reported that on the Island of Jersey
600 bushels of potatoes to the acre was quite an ordi-
nary crop; they are usually planted on land plowed
20 inches deep.

The French dry farmers in Algiers have discov-
ered that the only way to obtain a stand of alfalfa is
to plow about 20 inches.

Experiences in Many Soils and Climes.

Besides dry farming in Colorado for over thirty
years, I own and operate two dry fruit farms in Cali-
fornia, have dry farmed in South Africa, have studied
in English and French colleges and am acquainted
personally and practically with soil of every variety
of texture.

Much of the soil of my Colorado ranch is of
exactly the same quality as that found in Dakota,
Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas and New
Mexico. The foundation or subsoil is of a yellowish
clay containing a fair amount of lime, potash, and
phosphates; the surface is the usual loam containing
plenty of humus, when the sod is properly handled.

FOR AND AGAINST DEEP PLOWING 37

Deep Tilling or Not.

Regarding deep plowing with the Spalding plow,
one well known writer in the northwest in reference
to Dakota soils, says: “There cannot anyone convince
me for a minute that one can expect a crop of small
grain following the use of this implement, tilling to
a depth of 10 inches, either in a normal fall or in the
spring before the crop is planted.” “The soil has not
weight enough and does not get moisture enough to
settle fast enough.”

In direct contradiction to this we have the experi-
ence of Professor Waldron of Dickinson, N. D., who
told us at the Dry Farming Congress that out of sev-
eral plantings, on land which was packed and on soil
which was not packed at all, the difference was very
slight; but what there was, was in favor of the un-
packed land.

We also have the evidence of Prof. Alvin Keyser
of the Agricultural College of Colorado. This gentle-
man is about the most conservative Professor in
Colorado and not at all biased in favor of deep plow-
ing. He says: ‘The field was plowed around the
outside with the Spalding deep tilling machine. A
strip in the center and a strip on the same field at one
side was plowed with our usual plows. The yield of
oats on the land plowed with the Spalding deep till-
ing machine lacked only a few bushels of being twice
as great as that on the side strip plowed with the
ordinary plow. This work was all done on land which
was in very bad condition because of a lack of rotation
and manure. The benefits this particular season from
deep plowing are much greater than we had antici-
pated; no doubt better because of the run-down con-
dition of the soil.”

This is a typical case of deep plowing, helping
run-down light soil, the very soil this writer is so
afraid of.

38 PARSONS ON DRY FARMING

Professor Ten Eyck says: “IQII was one of the
driest years ever experienced in Kansas.” “That while
the shallow plowed land yielded a little over four
bushels of wheat per acre, early deep plowing gave
thirty-eight.” As far as packing is concerned the craze
is beginning to wear itself out; many of our friends
are dropping the packer and using the disc instead.
Every time the land is gone over with any implement
it develops more plant food and benefits the coming
crop whether it is a harrow or a packer or a disc. At
the same time it is quite possible for the land to be
over aerated, especially when planted immediately
after plowing.

Seed Bed Deeper Than Plowing.

When land is plowed Io inches deep, it will create
a seed bed about 15 inches in depth. When this is
properly disced and harrowed it will be about 14 inches
deep; if allowed to fallow for two or three months
with an average precipitation of an inch a month, it
will sink down and settle about another inch, and will
then be 13 inches deep. It is then approaching its best
physical condition and the crop can be planted. As
the crop grows and more rain comes it reaches its best
physical condition at 12 inches, just about in time to
mature the crop, which gives us the highest possible
yield. Now supposing the farmer packs the soil at
the start, reducing it from 15 inches to 13; a month
or two’s fallowing settles it down to 12; then he plants
it. He obtains the best physical condition of the soil
at the start instead of at maturing time for by that
time the soil is overpacked a little too hard, liable to
form a crust under the mulch and the yield is not
what it promised to be, for over-growth at the start
is very poor preparation for drouth at the finish.

Nature’s Soil Packing Best.

Another point: Nature’s packing is better than

artificial, because the soil is packed (by its weight)

FOR AND AGAINST DEEP PLOWING 39

from the bottom up while artificial packing is from
the top down.

However, I would say this in further answer: If
Dakota possesses a special soil, to be found nowhere
else in the world, specially donated by an all wise
providence to the people of this state, which is very rich,
but in which the necessary packing quality was over-
looked, then by all means get a packer and pack it.

Campbell once said words to this effect: “If you
plow over 6 or 7 inches, the packer will not pack it.”

We know it; some packers on the market are at
their best, playthings; but there are rollers and pack-
ers which will pack anything on earth, and we would
say, rather than lose thousands of dollars a year and
wear out the richness and germinating qualities of
your fine top soil by shallow plowing, if you find it
necessary, invest a few dollars in an implement which
will do the work.

Experience Not on Lava Ash Soils.

Another leading writer in Dakota says of our deep
plowing methods: “In the main, Parsons is right;
but am afraid he is farming on some of these lava or
ash soils. He hits straight from the shoulder,” etc.
The necessary momentum to hit straight from the
shoulder is acquired from dollars in the pocket and
experience in the upper story. As regards the ash
soils they are about the only kind I have never farmed,
but have raised crops on heavier soils and lighter soils.
The lightest and also the heaviest respond readily to
deep plowing. Harris B. Wasson, of North Dakota,
says: “Plow deep everywhere.” There you have it
in a nut shell. We have plenty of friends, however,
in Montana and Idaho and their verdict of these soils
also: “Every inch counts.”

Many Being Converted to Deep Plowing Idea.

Prof. Thatcher agrees thoroughly with us in plow-
ing the sod deep to save the humus and Prof. Palmer

40 PARSONS ON DRY FARMING

is urging 8-inch plowing as the minimum. The indi-
cations are that everyone will be plowing deeply in
a few years, but why lose money in the meantime?

Campbell also is becoming interested. His paper
says: “Heavy soils, especially the clays that have
been plowed from 4 to 6 inches deep, will be benefitted
by a deep plowing—a plowing that will turn up the
soil from a depth of 8 to Io inches.” He also says:
“Lighter soils that solidify readily will stand deep
tillage, providing a subsurface packer is used to firm
the root bed.”

This is much better than the antiquated notions
- about plowing which Campbell seemed to have
adopted into his system.

The idea of plowing sod 3 or 4 inches, running
a slanted harrow over it, backsetting it the next year
and tumbling it about in the sun for a couple of sea-
sons cannot by any stretch of the imagination be called
agriculture. Six-inch plowing is not much better, but
his recent utterance as quoted above is a subject for
congratulation, as it seems to mark an advance all
along the line.

Our Subsoils Are Rich.

Some farmers object to good plowing because
they say their subsoils are not rich enough. This is
an absurd argument, especially in a wheat-raising
country. The particular quality which differentiates
a wheat-raising country from any other is the adap-
tability of its subsoils to this branch of farming. No
wheat can be raised by 6-inch plowing or any kind of
plowing, if the subsoil is not right. Wheat is a deep
feeder, the roots going four feet into the subsoil, and
any man who can raise even ten bushels to the acre
and says his subsoil is poor is talking nonsense.

The reason Dakota is such a fine wheat-raising
state is owing almost entirely to the quality of its
subsoils. If you raise wheat, then your subsoil con-

FOR AND AGAINST DEEP PLOWING 41

tains lime, potash and phosphorus, besides nitrogen,
for wherever there is lime (calcium) and humus there
is nitrogen, for lime conserves nitrogen. Now we get
back to breaking sod again. The sod is the principal
source of humus for the new settler, and it is money
in the bank if properly handled, plowed deep and
buried in the subsoil.
Get the Sod Next to Clay.

The best place for the sod is next the clay where
the lime can conserve the nitrogen. According to the
soil specialists, the nitric acid as soon as it is formed
by the nitrifying bacteria, attacks the lime and be-
comes nitrate of calcium thus forming a most impor-
tant soluble element for the soil solution. Where
there is no lime present to take up the nitric acid as
soon as formed, the bacteria die in their own juice, are
killed off by the nitric acid, and the nitrifying process
slows down or comes to a full stop. For this reason
wherever we find that nitrogenous crops flourish such
as wheat and alfalfa, we know about what to expect
in the subsoil. It is altogether an old-fashioned delu-
sion to imagine that crops are made by the seed bed;
in dry farming especially, the subsoil has most to do
with it.

“Dry Farming” More Than “Good Farming.”

Our agricultural friends who come from the
humid states often tell us that dry farming is nothing
but progressive farming; good farming. This is a
serious misconception of the true facts; dry farming
is a branch by itself, a new agriculture. The soil and
water physics are entirely different, for speaking
broadly, dry farming is done on capillary water, while
humid farming is done on free water. In dry farming
the water is always going down, and the top drying
out, while in humid farming the free water is always
helping out the surface moisture and supplying the
roots in the seed bed. Therefore we find it impossible

42 PARSONS ON DRY FARMING

to raise profitable crops without the right subsoil con-
ditions, and these conditions can be obtained by one
method only, that of deep plowing.

The Greatest American Agriculturist.

If we judge the man by his works, the system by
results, then Dr. Seaman Knapp was the greatest of all
American agriculturists. He regenerated the agricul-
ture of the south, made two bales of cotton grow
where one grew before, and doubled every crop of
corn and cane, by his deep plowing methods. He
says: “Many trials made in a great variety of soils
show that the cost of plowing Io inches deep is on an
average about 50 cents more per acre than ordinary
plowing.”

“There is no doubt whatever that breaking and
pulverizing to a depth of 8 to Io or 12 inches and
adding humus is economical.”

Some of the advantages he enumerates are that
it provides more food because it increases the chemi-
cal action and multiplies bacterial life in a larger body
of soil.

It stores more moisture and loses its moisture
less rapidly on account of its cooler, lower strata and
the presence of more humus, (the plowed under soil).

It increases the root structure.

It enables the plant to root deeper and find perma-
nent moisture in the subsoil.

Government Should Demonstrate Deep Plowing.

We have been working in Colorado for deep plow-
ing for a number of years and are getting results. W.
Sulbershing.\/ mayor /ot) Limon \saye:)/: Une mederal
Government could do five times as much good for the
farmers if, instead of building reservoirs, they would
plow 100 acres a foot deep in each section and turn
it/over, to’ the new: settlers.”

Limon is being built up by dry farming with deep
plowing; hundreds of acres are plowed from 9g inches

FOR AND AGAINST DEEP PLOWING 43

to a foot deep. The soil is heavy, the crops enormous.
Pershing will give particulars. At Calhan following
our deep plowing methods they are raising, at an alti-
tude of 6,300 feet, forty to sixty bushels of corn; sixty
to seventy bushels of oats, and forty bushels of wheat.
One of the principal farmers and deep plowers is
Frank J. Kohler. At Burlington they are raising al-
falfa all over the prairie. If you plow shallow it dies
out. If you plow deep it stays.

On Utah soil we have G. L. Farrel dry farming
for half a century at Smithfield. He tells us: “I never
did very much at dry farming until one day about
forty years ago, my plow broke; I started to mend it
at home, but when we got through we found it had a
terrible down pull, plowing some g to I1 inches. It was
too far to the blacksmith’s, so we went ahead and
plowed that depth.”

The crop grown on that piece of land was a reve-
lation to him; he now plows deep and plants thin,
raising every year from forty-five to fifty bushels win-
ter wheat per acre.

We could fill this paper a hundred times over
every month with statistics on deep plowing, but if
any reader wishes to be convinced, why not try it out,
if only on a quarter of an acre?

I persuaded a neighbor to do this once and he
planted it to beans. I saw him the other day. He
said: “Parsons, we are still living off those beans
you persuaded me to plant ten years ago.”

CHAPTER V

Cultivating and Mulching

N order to thoroughly appreciate the necessity of
stirring the soil to create a mulch to conserve
moisture, some knowledge of soil physics over

and above what is found in our college books is
necessary.

Dry farming is in its infancy as far as its litera-
ture is concerned, for none of the great agriculturists
of former days considered it worth while, and nearly
everything in print concerns humid agriculture, and
has little or no bearing on dry farming.

The great difference between the two is, roughly
speaking, that dry farming is done on capillary water,
while humid farming is done on free water. Wherever
the subsoil is dry the free water is forever percolating
down and becoming capillary (film) water. In the
humid states the chronic condition of the subsoil is
wet, not dry, and the consequence is that the precipi-
tation enters the interstitial spaces between the gran-
ules which are already covered with film water, and
remains there more or less as free water until used
up by the roots.

If you try it out in the soil, or watch the film
moisture on the granules through a glass tube with a
microscope, you will soon find out that the difference
between these two forms of soil moisture is that
free water will rise or try to rise to the surface; film
water will not.

In the year book of the Department of Agricul-
ture for 1908, a writer on soil says, that the soil gran-
ules hold the film water with a tenacity equal in
strength to a pressure of several hundred pounds to
the square inch.

CULTIVATING AND MULCHING 45

Cultivation.

On the humid farm they cultivate as they say, to
cut off capillarity to make the interstitial spaces so
large that the free water cannot rise to the surface
and there evaporate. On the dry farm this is only
one of the many reasons for cultivating to form a
mulch. The most important one is to destroy the con-
tinuity of the earth pores or fissures through which
the air circulates and causes evaporation. ‘These di-
minutive cracks or fissures zigzag in every direction
starting on the surface as the ground begins to dry
out, and going deeper and deeper every day with the
drouth. When the soil contains no free water the
interstitial spaces are occupied by air which, of course,
is saturated and will carry water out of the soil if
allowed to escape.

This air moves in the soil more than most people
think. In disinfecting soil, vineyards for instance, to
kill the phylloxera they place half an ounce of carbon
bisulphide in the center of each cubic block of earth
3 feet thick by 3 feet wide. This kills everything liv-
ing within said block inside of 48 hours. It makes no
difference how hard the earth is so long as the inter-
stitial spaces are not blocked with free water.

The deeper the mulch the better, of course, for
conserving moisture; but here we run up against an-
other proposition, the accumulation of moisture. The .
more quickly we can receive the water and allow it to
percolate downwards and become film water the better
we can save it. The sum of all our experiences
gathered in this matter is that the best all round mulch
for accumulating and conserving is about 3 inches
deep and a rough distinctly furrowed mulch is much
better than a smooth one.

The Dust Mulch.

In a country where there is a rainy season a deep

smooth dust mulch is of course preferable where the

46 PARSONS ON DRY FARMING

object is to conserve the moisture through a long dry
spell until the rains begin again, but in our country
where moisture may fall any minute we have to be
prepared for it, for if it is allowed to remain on the
surface as free water a large proportion of it is lost by
capillarity, and evaporation, especially where the land
is plowed shallow and overpacked. It is true that
a smooth mulch offers less surface for evaporation pur-
poses than a rough one, but it forms more mud,
catches the water in pools, does not absorb it as
quickly, bakes and cracks and forms a crust more
easily.

Cultivation must always be performed across the
slope so that the cultivator furrows impede the run-off
and allow the water to soak in between them, leaving
the top of the little furrows sometimes almost dry,
which prevent the baking afterwards so common to
smooth land. Another point is, that furrowed land,
however small the furrows, will always remain looser
than smooth land, because during the drying out proc-
ess the tension is different at the top than it is at the
bottom of the furrow, and this diverse action helps to
keep the soil loose. A most important function of
the cultivator is to develop mineral plant food. Every
working of the soil results, as a rule, in increased yield.
The particles of earth are disintegrated by attrition
exposing molecules of different elements to the acids
of the soil, and decomposing humus, which thus be-
comes converted into soluble salts available for the
soil solution.

We have an almost unlimited supply of mineral
plant food, but not so the humus, and there can be no
question but that cultivation uses it up. There is no
way around it, the best we can do is to plow deep,
thus mixing a large amount of soil with it and thereby
reducing the loss to the lowest possible limit.

At the same time attention might be called to the

CULTIVATING AND MULCHING 47

fact that shallow plowing followed by intensive culti-
vation is the most destructive method known of de-
pleting the soil of humus. The truth of the matter is
that shallow plowing provides such a small reserve of
moisture for a crop that if a few drops of water are
lost, a single cultivation to break the crust neglected,
disaster is liable to result. The crops are made, such
as they are, by cultivation instead of plowing which is
not only unscientific but absolutely unprofitable.

In cultivating the fallow when the land is deeply
plowed it is not at all necessary to break every crust
that forms, for light rains and even winds often come
and fill up the little cracks or pores before they have
extended an inch below the surface. Our experience
in this matter is that a fallow field cultivated enough
to keep the weeds out, will, if properly plowed at the
start, contain at the end of the season nearly twice
as much moisture as the one plowed shallow and in-
tensively cultivated. When a drouth ensues after wet
weather the free water in the top 6 inches keeps com-
ing to the surface and that part of it which has not
become capillary water is used up fighting the drouth
for the top inch.

The Crust Under the Mulch.

When all the free water has been evaporated the
top inch commences to dry out, the capillary or film
water remaining in place; in a week or so another inch
will have gone dry, but the soil underneath if tested
where no crop is growing will be found as wet as ever,
showing that the moisture is not rising into the dry
ground above. When the top 3 inches consisting of
the mulch have dried out, a crust commences to be
formed by the drouth under the mulch. Now before
going any further we may point out that if the old
theory of film or capillary water rising to the surface
were correct, it would be impossible for the top to
dry out until the water in the subsoil was more or

48 PARSONS ON DRY FARMING

less used up; but instead of this what do we find?
That the top dries out and the water in the subsoil is
as plentiful as at the beginning of the drouth. A few
simple experiments will convince anyone, who wants
to be convinced, of these facts. At this stage of the
game we find the crops in this position. The 3-inch
mulch is dry, the ground under the mulch is beginning
to dry and the surface roots are becoming crowded.
Suppose the seed bed is only 5 inches, we can see what
a fix the farmer is in! Suppose the seed bed is 10 or
12 inches and the drouth getting down at the rate of
an inch a month, which field would a man put his
money in to raise the best crop? These questions, of
course, answer themselves, but there is another ques-
tion: Will any variety of cultivation help the situa-
tion when this crust forms under the mulch?

No; the roots are right there in the crust and if
the farmer tears up the crust he tears up the roots.
Another point: There is no more loss of moisture
with this crust under the mulch than there was before,
provided the mulch above the crust has been kept in
good tilth. We have often sampled the soil under the
crust and found it carrying its full quota of film water
—for its variety of soil, about 15% to 17%.

This crust under the mulch is not dreaded by deep
plowers; it is only one of the many symptoms of dry
weather ; let it form if it wants to, and remember this:
The fifth and sixth inches dry out very slowly indeed,
if they ever dry out at all, and all the roots the farmer
can get established by deep plowing below the sixth
inch are going to stand in any drouth.

Implements for Cultivating.

The best implement for cultivating corn is the
regular six-bladed cultivator running three blades on
each side of the row. There is no object in cultivating
deep at the start, and shallow later on, for it is better
that all the cultivation be about 3 inches, not allowing

Soil below th
ted by

Root Growth in Shallow Seed Bed.
e top two inches is hard and cannot easily be penetra

the roots—a condition th

at exists in shallow-tilled fields.

a ae oe ae

jy

a

CULTIVATING AND MULCHING 49

any roots above this depth on account of drouth. If
there is any slope the rows should always run across
it, not up and down with it, and if the crop is planted
in hills and worked both ways, the up and down rows
should be done first and the field finished across the
slope, as this helps to hold the run-off until it can soak
in. Cultivation does not create moisture; it only helps
to conserve it, therefore in a long period of drouth
when the mulch is in perfect tilth it does more harm
than good to keep on cultivating, for it makes a dust
mulch which clogs the interstitial spaces and when the
rain does come it cannot get down and the corn goes
on wilting as before. Everything on the dry farm
should be cultivated as far as possible, the theory be-
ing that the farmer should break every crust that
forms, but with deep plowing if enough cultivation is
supplied to keep all the weeds down and out, a good
crop will result. Trees are easy to grow if they are
planted in rows and cultivated, but when pot holed in
hard ground they usually die.

The safest implement to cultivate alfalfa with is
the harrow, but when planted in rows can be worked
with the ordinary cultivator. Winter wheat and small
grain can be cultivated with the harrow and when it
is too high for that with the weeder which is a machine
built on the principle of the hay rake. Small grain
should not be worked until thoroughly stooled, and
we seldom harrow winter wheat until the spring.

The most critical time usually for all crops is
when the spring rains have ceased and the showers
of summer have not begun; then is the time to look
for a drouth, and put a good mulch on everything.

When I came to the west many years ago, people
used to tell me it was nothing but a cow country, fit
only for cattle and coyotes; yet everywhere we could
see weeds growing from 2 to 6 feet high; the prairie
was dotted with beautiful wild flowers and wild fruit

50 PARSONS ON DRY FARMING

even could be had for the hunting. They called it a
desert, the arid lands, the cattle country, yet the only
thing that ever made this a near truth was man’s in-
competency. The very fact of our having to reckon
with weeds shows the absurdity of such ideas. Fif-
teen inches of precipitation is plenty for the farmer
who understands his business, and even then he has
to fight the weed-growth in order to make his crops.
Weeds have to be exterminated by cultivation, but it
is poor economy to be everlastingly weeding a corn
patch when a little care at the start would have saved
all the trouble. When the sod is first plowed there are
very few weeds. The grass should be turned under
deep so that every one can be cultivated out, and one
man with a hoe can destroy every one going to seed on
ten acres in a day. If this is kept up the land never
becomes weedy. When land is plowed ahead of time,
as it always should be, nearly all the weeds can be
cultivated out before ever planting the crop. Crops
which favor weeds should be rotated with crops like
winter rye which kill them out. On a weedy ranch
they have not only this season’s weeds to attend to
which sprout on the surface, but the weeds which will
come next year from the seed plowed under this year.
The time to kill weeds by cultivation is when they are
coming through, and corn can be cultivated with the
harrow before it comes up by removing a few teeth in
order to miss the rows; but a thick planting for fodder
may be harrowed regardless.

The Summer-Fallow.

Intensive cultivation of the summer-fallow is not
to be recommended, especially with the harrow, for it
creates a dust mulch, uses up too much humus and does
not conserve as much moisture as enough rough culti-
vation with a disc or corn cultivator to keep the weeds
out. The best implement to use on the summer-fallow
for catching quick rains is the disc. The land should

CULTIVATING AND MULCHING 51

be disced and cross-disced without lapping. This
leaves the field in checkers or squares the width of the
disc hollow in the middle and high at the edges, which
if properly done will hold an inch of rain if it comes
in twenty minutes.

The disc is also invaluable for terracing an orch-
ard on a side hill, hollowing out the rows across the
slope to catch the water and prevent run off.

The plow and even the road grader can be used
for such work, and I look forward to the time when
our hills will be planted to shade trees and our moun-
tains reforested by just such a method. In cultivating
as well as in plowing and packing we must always
have an eye to the accumulation of moisture as well
as its conservation.

CHAPTER VI

Subsoil Moisture

T is quite true that some confusion does exist in dry
| farm physics in the minds of nearly everybody
interested. There are several reasons for this.
One is that the professors and farmers speak different
languages. Another is that professors and books do
not always agree among themselves; the science of
today is not always the science of tomorrow, and the
most beautiful theories in the world may go to pieces
in the face of some ugly little fact which bobs up
sometimes many years after, with seemingly no other
reason except to upset and confuse theory with
practice.
Humid Soil Physics Do Not Apply to Dry Soils.

Another and more pertinent reason is that our dry
farm soil physics have never been properly elucidated
and printed in book form and our agriculturists are
still floundering in the free water physics of the humid
states which do not apply to our western dry farm
soils and subsoils.

I am endeavoring in this article to show from my
long experience in dry soils wherein this difference
lies; but without any explanation whatever, we can all
see that the action of capillarity in a dry soil must be
something totally and radically different from the
action of free water applied to soil granules in a glass
tube from a basin of water.

These college experiments are, of course, of value
to humid farmers and irrigators; but the dry farmers
are not farming over a tight subsoil much less over
water.

We may avoid some of the confusion by dividing
soil water into two classes: that which moves and

SUBSOIL MOISTURE 53
that which does not move, but here the professor
might step in again and say there is no water which
does not move, and technically speaking, he would be
correct; but a movement of water in the soil a tenth
of an inch, the thickening of a film a thousandth part
of an inch though interesting to the professor might
not affect the dry farmers’ crops a particle; for what
he wants to know is: not what capillarity can do when
supported by free water as Professor Hutton tells us;
but what happens to film water in our dry farm sub-
soils when capillary action stops or becomes dormant,
for this is the chronic or natural condition of our
subsoils.

Eastern Teaching Incorrect.

When agriculturists come here from the east they
forget that their soils are wet; ours are dry. The first
thing they tell us is this: Water soaks into the soil
and becomes capillary water; after a while as soon as
the top begins to dry out it begins to work up to the
surface again.

This is correct of the east, but correct only in a
very limited way of the west and absolutely incorrect
as applied to the subsoil and the seed bed in dry
farming.

In the wet states there is always water down
below; therefore the water cannot get down into dry
ground where capillary action peters out for want of
moisture; but capillary action does cease for another
reason altogether. When all the granules hold a big
film of moisture of equal size, capillary action ceases
because equilibrium is established.

We must notice that in this case in wet countries,
action has ceased for the time being, with plenty of
water on hand (the water that moves). Now when
dry weather comes and upsets the equilibrium by dry-
ing out the surface this more or less loose water starts
by capillary action moving back to the surface again.

54 PARSONS GON DRY FARMING

Dry Land Subsoils Naturally Dry.

On the dry ranch conditions are altogether differ-
ent; our subsoil is naturally dry, not wet. When
water falls on it, it spreads out and down until it is
all used up; it has become film water; it can never
move again by capillary action until more water
comes, as the farmer would say, “It is too dry to
move.’ Therefore, when the top begins to dry out
this water stays where it is in the subsoil. Now we
can perceive what a profound difference this fact
makes between the relation of the seed bed and the
subsoil, and we can begin to understand that although
the seed bed is almost dry in some years we can yet
make a crop on the subsoil.

Capillary Action Stops Absolutely.

Dr. Widtsoe in his book says that when a certain
stage of dryness is reached capillary action stops
absolutely.

Dr. Alway, of Nebraska, says when capillarity
comes to a standstill for want of water, the agency
which moves water to the surface is distillation.

Professor Snyder, of North Platte, says his soils
will hold from 14% to 17% of water after all action
and drainage have ceased.

The writer by repeated experiment in the subsoil
itself knows that his soil will hold against capillarity
and gravity with dry dirt all around it from 13% to
18%.

The percentage depends largely on the soil, humus
soil and clay soils holding more than sandy loams.

In order to be exact I would like to say here that
I do not intend to infer that capillary action is abso-
lutely dormant at these percentages; but that any
slight movement of moisture of a tenth or an eighth
of an inch for instance obtained by intense pressure,
does not in any way affect the general relation of top
soil and subsoil as regards moisture.

SUBSOIL MOISTURE “55

Film Moisture Strongly Held.

In speaking of film moisture a writer of the De-
partment of Agriculture says in the year book for
1908, that this moisture is held by the soil granules
with a tenacity equal to many hundred pounds of
pressure to the square inch.

The only agency which can move it is evapora-
tion. Much of the confusion which arises in the minds
of ordinary laymen with regard to these matters is the
result of teachers of agriculture who have had no
experience in dry farm soils presenting us with the
soil physics of the wet states which so far are the only
physics to be found in book form.

We can imagine what a dry farmer who is accus-
tomed to the dry subsoils of New Mexico and Texas,
thinks when some young fellow gets up on the plat-
form and tells him that the water is always coming up
from his subsoil traveling in a stream from one gran-
ule to another until it reaches the surface. If this
were a fact we would need no dry farming instruc-
tions and no literature. The truth is, that in times of
drouth the seed bed may completely dry out while the
subsoil is carrying a full complement of film water up
to the limit where active capillarity and drainage
cease, namely from 14 to 17% in ordinary soils.

Next I will proceed to show how a man working
in the soil becomes acquainted with these facts.

In 1893 and ’94 we had two very dry years, the
precipitation being somewhere about 9g and 8 inches
respectively.

Experiments in Dry Orchard.

In ’93 I started preparing land for my orchard by
deep plowing and fallowing. At the end of the season
the moisture had penetrated to a depth of 3 feet.
When the water was going down, the top and even
the subsoil sometimes carried as much as 25%. After
the water came to a standstill two or three days after

56 PARSONS ON DRY FARMING

a storm the water in the subsoil always measured the
same, 17% (in clay loam).

Every time it rained the same thing happened;
the moisture went deeper but the percentage remained
the same. Now why was this? Simply because capil-
lary action and the pull of gravity came to a stand-
still when that particular soil carried less than
17% of moisture. Then when a rain came and
started action again it did not increase the percentage
but went on and down deeper and deeper into the
dry subsoil.

Now if a lot of farmers on the same soil measure
the moisture in their subsoils next spring they will
find to their surprise that they all have the same per-
centage; but some who have done good work, espe-
cially deep plowing, will have 3 or 4 or 5 feet while
others will have only 2 or 3.

$5,000 Worth of Fruit Grown.

In the spring of 1894, I planted 2,000 young trees,
apples, cherries and plums (which up to date have pro-
duced $5,000 worth of fruit) on the fallowed land
which then contained 3 feet of moisture running about
17%. That year we had a few light showers and then
about eight weeks’ drouth. At the end of the eight
weeks’ drouth the subsoil in the middle of the row
carried 16% of moisture right through, but adjacent
to the tree roots it only carried about 12%, showing
that the trees in the cube occupied by the roots had
used up about 4%.

The mulch was dry; there was a crust under the
mulch which also was dry; close up to the crust was
soil carrying 16%, yet that moisture staid in place
moving neither up nor down for eight weeks.

The fact that there was a crust under the mulch
which was dry shows that the water was not moving
up by any capillary action, since there is nothing with
a much stronger capillary pull than a crust.

SUBSOIL MOISTURE 57

Soil Holds Per Cent of Water Against Upward Move-
ment.

Every dry year we notice the same phenomenon,
namely that 15 to 17% moisture will not move upward
into dry ground by capillary action. This can be
tested by anyone interested in the ground itself or in
the laboratory by placing dry dirt or half dry dirt
above soil containing about 16% moisture. Pressure
makes little difference; the fact remains and always
will remain, that active capillarity stops in our soils
more or less at these percentages according to the
density or capillary pull of the dirt tested. In the
orchard tests, during eight weeks the moisture in the
subsoil between the rows where there were no tree
roots was reduced only by 1%, and this loss was
caused entirely by evaporation through the interstitial
spaces which, by the way, always goes on in a very
slight degree owing to the slow movement of the
saturated air, even when a good deep mulch is main-
tained. In the fall of the year when the days are hot
and the nights cold this moisture becomes condensed
in the mulch and especially on the roots of crops
owing to the fact that on account of the sap circulating
through the leaves in the cool night air the root is
cooler than the soil. This underground dew can easily
be seen as beads of moisture on sunflower roots any
September morning after a cold night. Anyone who
keeps track of his subsoil moisture will discover that
after a light cold snow, or a cold night it may lose a
small percentage or fraction thereof by distillation.
The amount lost, however, in this manner, by thermal
agencies has little effect on the status of the subsoil
and, speaking broadly, we may say that water properly
conserved in the dry farm subsoil stays there until the
roots of some crop take it out.

Packing Seed Bed to Establish Capillarity.

Is there anything in the contention of some that

58 PARSONS ON DRY FARMING

by packing the seed bed we can establish capillary
action with the subsoil?

I have never been able to discover any evidence
of this.

In dry years we dig a hole in the subsoil when it
is carrying its full quota of moisture, fill it up with
dry or half dry dirt from the seed bed and tamp it
solid, more solid than any packing could afford; after
a month or so, the conditions are unchanged unless
water is allowed to come in from the surface. The
only thing noticeable under pressure is a very slight
blending at the point of contact embracing four or
five granules. This experiment can also be tried out
in the laboratory in an even temperature by placing
the dirt in jars or cylinders.

In a humid country where there is free water in
the subsoil to support capillary action moisture may
move up into the seed bed but never when there is
a dry subsoil below to steal the surplus water.

Even in humid countries unless there is an excess
of rainfall the subsoil can more than hold its own with
the seed bed because being denser it possesses a supe-
rior capillary pull which, by the way, does not neces-
sarily depend upon the density of the particles but on
the density of the mass as a whole—the smallness of
the interstitial spaces; and however much we may
pack the seed bed we can never make it as solid as the
subsoil which has never been plowed. For this reason
when a tree is pot-holed and watered by hand it
doesn’t, as a rule, last long, for the solid ground
around the hole steals the water.

What Capillary Action Exists On Dry Farm.

Now occurs the following question: Do we get
any capillary action on the dry farm of any conse-
quence?

We do—in the top 6 inches or so after wet
weather before the water has had time to soak down

SUBSOIL MOISTURE 59

into the dry subsoil below and become film water.
This moisture coming to the surface for a few days
is often mistaken for capillary water rising from the
subsoil whereas it is nothing but the top inch robbing
the second and third. We notice this action particu-
larly after harrowing or packing. How can this mois-
ture be practically utilized by the farmer?

When the seed rows are packed, without packing
the whole surface; owing to the superior capillarity of
the packed row, the water can be held there long
enough for germination to take place even in the
absence of further precipitation.

Must Depend Upon Subsoil Moisture.

The more we study dry farm physics the more
we become convinced of the entire feasibility of
raising crops on subsoil moisture, for speaking
broadly, the moisture stays where it is put until
the roots of the crops take it out and when we
have 8 or g inches of water stored in 4 or 5 feet of
good subsoil the odds in favor of making a crop are
about 30 to 1; at least that is as close as I can figure
it On a 30 years’ average with an ordinary precipita-
tion, and I can also say that although I have had three
or four small crops in very dry years, I have never
lost one by drouth.

The aim and object of this article is to demon-
strate that if the farmer plows shallow expecting the
moisture to rise into his seed bed he will be grievously
disappointed; moreover, if the top inch of his subsoil
underneath the plowed ground happens to become
just a little too dry through insufficient covering, the
roots will turn sidewise and spread out instead of go-
ing down and his crops may dry out even when he has
saved up 4 or 5 feet of moisture in his subsoil.

CHAPTER VII

2t

Dry Farm Fertilizing

N order to understand anything about soil fertility
Wwe must first study the soil itself. Where did
the soil come from, how did it originate? Geolo-

gists tell us that thousands of years ago, probably
millions, there was nothing much on the earth but
rocks and water.

The action of heat, cold, the washing of the
waters, the erosion, the grinding of the glaciers and
chemical action all helped to disintegrate the rocks—
the result was soil.

Therefore the basis of the ground we raise crops
on is fine particles of rock; mixed with these particles
is usually a certain amount of organic matter, decayed
or decaying roots, leaves, stalks, etc., in other words,
vegetable matter which ultimately becomes humus.

The breaking up of soil granules, these particles
of rock, is always going on by chemical action, by
weathering, and by the friction and attrition of tillage.

When a farmer wants to make a solution of coffee
for breakfast he grinds it up and the finer he grinds
it the stronger the solution will be. The same with
soil granules; no land can ever be absolutely ex-
hausted for all time because the particles in which the
mineral plant food is locked up are always being di-
vided and subdivided by natural causes, as explained
before, and this process goes on indefinitely, releasing
more or less mineral plant food which is taken up by
the water, thus forming the soil solution. This soil
solution may be rich in a good soil containing one part
of mineral matter in a thousand of water, or it may be
poor in a depleted soil containing only one part of
mineral matter in eight or ten thousand parts of water.

DRY FARM FERTILIZING 61

Available Plant Food the Point.

Now we come to the main point which is the gist
of the whole matter.

It is not the mineral plant food which is locked
up in the granules that makes a soil fertile or unfertile
for the time being; it is the amount of available plant
food, the free matter ready for the soil solution, which
makes the difference between a good soil and a poor
or used up one. Now comes the question: “Why does
soil become exhausted by cropping?” Because the
crops use up the available plant food more quickly
than nature unlocks it.

Can we infer from this that if a soil is left alone,
fallowed for a number of years, it will again become
fertile?

If it is a perfect or complete soil containing all the
necessary elements, it will; otherwise ic may not, for if
it happens to be short on some element which became
easily available, and was more or less used up during
the cropping period, and this element cannot be com-
pletely renewed by the unlocking process, then the
soil solution must necessarily be deficient. Analyzing
soil is a very long and arduous business and even
when carefully performed seldom gives us a correct
idea of what the soil needs. What we ought to do is
to analyze the soil solution in order to discover how
‘much available plant food’ we have in the soil and
what it is composed of.

How Did Plants First Feed?

It is self-evident that when vegetation first com-
menced to grow on the earth it had to adapt itself in
some way to the existing soil solutions or perish in
the attempt, and it is an interesting question as to
how this came about. Did the plants absorb the soil
solution as it was, did they filter it, rejecting some of
it, or did they take it in and then excrete the surplus
portions of it by means of the roots? The bulk of

62 PARSONS ON DRY FARMING

evidence in this matter goes to show that they did,
and do now, absorb the whole soil solution as they
find it and that according to the solution so is the
plant.

For instance, in a soil containing plenty of potash
which forms a soluble salt with silica we always find
large quantities of this mineral in the stalks of the
grain; in a soil containing carbonate of lime in solu-
tion we find sometimes double the ordinary amount
of lime in the alfalfa and so on, the crop being always
a reflection of the soil solution.

When there is too much alkali, carbonates and
sulphates of soda the plants absorb it and die. Too
much soda in the soil will spot the leaves of trees, the
trees get rid of it by dropping their leaves in the fall,
and for this reason can stand a certain percentage
better than some plants.

Filtration Theory.

To support the theory of filtration, another theory
had to be invented—that of osmosis; but dry farming
_demonstrates that trees live and flourish in ground so
dry that no osmosis between the roots and the soil
solution is possible. Building on this filtration theory
some of the older agriculturists formed the idea that
one crop for instance would use up more potash than
another, one more nitrogen or more phosphorus and
so on, and that in order to even things up we should
rotate the crops; but evidently this is not the true
reason.

Now comes the Bureau of Soils and tells us that
crops give out emanations from their roots which
more or less poison the soil, and that much of the soil
exhaustion and deterioration comes from this.

Dr. Cyril Hopkins scouts the idea, and as far as
our dry farm soils are concerned, I am convinced the
Doctor is right.

Dry farming with its dry farm soils and their

DRY FARM FERTILIZING 63

chemistry and physics as I have always maintained
is quite a different proposition to humid farming in
the eastern states.

We can quite understand that the roots of crops
at depth in wet soil may decompose with the assist-
ance of the poisonous anaerobic bacteria, and give off
emanations toxic to crops, the antidote of which is
aeration.

Humus.

In my dry farming experience I have always
found that the more roots left in the soil the more
humus, the more humus the more crops. The hardest
crops on the soil are those in which we remove the
roots, such as beets, potatoes, etc. If we take the
roots of any grain crop, dry them out, powder them
up, make tea of them and apply it to some growing
plant, instead of poison we find we have a fine fer-
tilizer. Such evidence as the above leads me to be-
lieve with Professor Bolley that the true reason for
crop rotation lies in the fact that the soil becomes
crop sick when planted continuously to the same
thing.

Crop Sick Soil.

What is crop sick? Anyone who has raised flax
and potatoes has discovered what this is. Diseases are
nothing but small organisms preying on big organ-
isms. Germs, microbes, bacilli, bacteria, or whatever
you like to call them have been found at the bottom of
everything; there is some difficulty in discovering
some because they are so small as to be invisible under
a microscope which magnifies 3,000 times. All crops
are more or less infested with them and the symptoms
they produce are classed as different diseases or
blights; but the point which concerns us is, that each
genus of microbe has its own particular crop, and as
long as this crop is raised to the exclusion of all others
the soil becomes more and more infested with the dis-

64 PARSONS ON DRY FARMING

eases which belong to it, or as Professor Bolley re-
marks, the land becomes crop sick.
Improper Use of Fertilizers.

The Bureau of Soils gives as one of its reasons
for believing in the toxic exudation theory that on
some soils some fertilizers do more harm than good.

The answer to this is: ‘They do in this country
but not in others where fertilization is better under-
stood. America is young; we are just beginning to
feel the need of these things, in other countries they
have been studying it for hundreds of years. In Ger-
many the agricultural chemist does nothing but study
out these questions, and we may be quite sure that
no German farmer ever puts a pound of commercial
fertilizer on his land unless he is assured of adequate
returns.

The soil solution usually contains some form of
iron, magnesia, lime, soda, silica, sulphur, and the com-
pounds of nitrogen, phosphorus and potash.

These three last are the most soluble and
disappear from the soil the quickest, and if we
can replace these there is little trouble about the
others.

Commercial Fertilizers Too Expensive.

The difficulty is there is no commercial fertilizer
cheap enough to use which gives us the exact com-
pounds of nitrogen and potash for instance as nature
produces them in the soil. We can obtain the neces-
sary phosphate from applying the ground rock in the
natural condition which works perfectly ; but for nitro-
gen the principal fertilizer is nitrate of soda, for pot-
ash kainit, and with both of these the utmost care is
needed in the application. Strictly speaking, nitrate
of soda is not a chemically correct nitrogen fertilizer
such as we might consider nitrate of calcium, nitrate
of potash or even ammonia to be, but the price, the
cost of manufacture of these latter prohibits their use

Iled Land.

Deep Seed Bed Such as May be Found
-T

in
on Deep

Root Growth of Corn

DRY FARM FERTILIZING 65

at present. Nitrate of soda which is brought from
the deserts of Chili cannot be advantageously applied
to all soils, especially those more or less alkaline, on
account of the soda. Some of the nitrogen goes off in
the form of ammonia which leaves soda, and under
ordinary conditions this takes up carbonic acid and
becomes carbonate of soda, a most undesirable alkali.
The trouble is a little too much alkali, or even a little
too much acid, may upset the chemical equilibrium of
the soil solution. For example, when soil water, the
soil solution, contains a certain percentage of carbonic
acid, which it usually gets from humus, it can dis-
solve and hold in solution such minerals as protoxide
of iron, lime, potash and magnesia, all necessary to
plants. Now supposing enough soda attacks the solu-
tion to combine with all the carbonic acid by forming
carbonate of soda; then it can no longer hold the
former substances in the water and consequently its
efficiency is reduced by that much. Kainit, also the
great German potash fertilizer, contains other con-
stituents besides the potash; it is described as a
hydrous potassium magnesium chloro sulphate.

Commercial Fertilizers May Destroy Humus.

Now I would like to ask, does any farmer who is
likely to try this in our country, does anyone in fact,
understand what will be the exact action, combina-
tions or affinities of these elements and compounds,
when applied to the soil or mixed with other fertilizers
under diverse thermal and moisture conditions? It
has been proved in Europe, however, and I believe we
may accept it as a fact, that the indiscriminate use of
chemical fertilizers without adding humus (and I
believe here is the principal trouble) leaves the soil
in worse condition than it was before, which is not
apparent however until the use of them is discontinued
for some reason or other.

In the meantime it is impossible to deny that

66 PARSONS ON DRY FARMING

these same fertilizers when properly applied, are pro-
viding something for the plant, previously exhausted
from the soil, or otherwise they could not restore the
yield and the farmers would not buy them. It is
absurd to imagine that a quarter of a million farmers
in western Europe are buying kainit just for the fun
of spreading it over their land. If we make a careful
analysis of some soil, put it in a pot and place a plant
in it, and after three years or so when the plant has
ceased growing make another analysis and find a loss
of nitrogen, phosphate and potash, would it not be a
safe deduction to assume that the plant used them up?

If we analyze the plant and find them there, would
it not be a still safer deduction?

If we place the missing compounds back in the
pot and the plant takes another lease of life and grows
equally well for another three years, would it not be
as near to an absolute certainty as we can get? As I
have often remarked, why not try some of these things
instead of arguing?

Although mistakes in applying fertilizers may
cause some in this country to search for other expla-
nations than soil exhaustion, the repeated and almost
universal using of these materials for the purpose of
soil restoration in the older agricultural countries
where the land has been worked for hundreds of years,
demonstrates that if we know how, we cannot only
put back what the crops take out but can continue to
produce profitable yields for centuries.

Dry Farmer Doesn’t Need It.

As far as the dry farmer is concerned he will need
little or no commercial fertilizers probably for a gen-
eration provided he takes care of the humus.

This humus is what he must look to, for it is a
fertilizer in more senses than one; it contains not only
a fair amount of predigested mineral plant food, but
provides a medium for the development of nitrogen,

DRY FARM FERTILIZING 67

and last but not least evolves acids which assist ma-
terially in unlocking the fertility already in the soil
granules. Therefore we consider that the vital point
for the present is to conserve the humus. The future
will probably take care of itself, for we have not only
potash fields, but plenty of rock phosphate in the west
awaiting development, and as far as nitrogen is con-
cerned there are indications that we will soon be able
to manufacture at a practical price all we can use from
the atmosphere.

How to Conserve Humus.

The real problem then is, how can the dry farmer
conserve the humus? To begin at the beginning, the
very first thing to do is to plow the sod under deep
which mixes it with a large amount of dirt, keeps it
away from the atmosphere and allows all its gases and
emanations to be absorbed by the soil. The next point
to consider is that in taking a crop off the ground we
should leave as much as possible of it to be plowed
under.

Nothing could be worse than the method now in
vogue of burning straw stacks, for when this is done
the farmer is recklessly destroying somewhere about
$15 worth of fertilizer to the acre per annum. The
only correct method of handling this problem in the
grain field is to head the wheat instead of binding it,
leaving nearly all the straw to be plowed under.

How can humus be supplied to a field which needs
it? ‘There are two other ways besides manuring—
plowing under green crops, and planting it to alfalfa.
The best crop for this purpose is fall rye, because it
can be planted in the fall and plowed under when a
foot or eighteen inches high in the spring in plenty
of time for planting corn or sorghum or other late
crops. For fertilizing purposes it should be planted
40 or 50 pounds to the acre in the late summer in order
to give it plenty of time to stool.

68 PARSONS ON DRY FARMING

Plant Alfalfa Before Too Late.

Whenever a field shows signs of exhaustion, it
should be planted to alfalfa before too late; I say too
late because it is a difficult matter to obtain a good
stand of alfalfa on poor soil. If it cannot be secured
otherwise it will pay to plow under a green crop and
enrich the ground before planting. The reason that
alfalfa improves land in spite of heavy cropping (I
am speaking only of dry land alfalfa) is that it leaves
more humus in the soil than it takes out, or to speak
correctly, than it used up in the soil which supports
it. This humus is supplied by the 10 or 20% of leaves
which drop off during the harvesting and also by the
roots the weight of which runs into many tons per
acre.

Sand bars and deserts reclaimed from the ocean
or rivers may eventually become fertile as nature pro-
vides the humus; for plain ordinary sand may be rich
in the essentials if the requisite compounds are pro-
vided to unlock them.

Humus the Essential.

At first the vegetation is sparse and far between
but a little humus is getting into the soil; after many
years the vegetation changes little at a time but be-
comes stronger and heavier and as it decays and goes
back to earth again more and more humus is getting
into the soil and eventually perhaps after hundreds of
years the desert may become fit for the plow, espe-
cially if the winds assist in bringing soil from more
favored localities.

Humus is of more value to the dry farmer than it
is to his brother of the wet states on account of its
water-holding capacity; it even surpasses clay in this
respect, but unlike clay it improves the texture of the
soil, making it more friable, for its particles being
of organic origin it cannot combine readily with min-
eral matter to form a crust.

DRY FARM FERTILIZING 69

In summing up this case of fertilization, I would
say that I believe that if the dry farmer rotates his
crops, feeds them to cattle returning the excretions to
the soil, plows deep, saves the sod at the start and
takes care of the humus and soil generally, plowing
under green crops when necessary, he will have little
use for any further fertilization for a generation at
least.

CHAPTER VIII
Packing and Fallowing

Y experience in this matter is, that the best
yield from a crop is obtained not by having
the field in best physical condition, the opti-

mum state of density at planting; but just before ma-
turing time.

It is self-evident that as the soil in a field after
being plowed becomes more and more packed by every
rain that comes and also by the weight of its own soil
it gradually approaches its optimum condition for
crops and then by becoming more and more solid it
passes this point of perfection and becomes too solid.

This is an important matter to so adjust the best
period of soil condition that it will meet the greatest
need of crop growth.

When Best Condition is Needed.

Now the greatest need of crop growth is not when
a crop is first planted, but when it is making grain;
therefore, if by artificial packing we put our soil in the
best physical condition as regards density at planting
time when the crop does not require it, we lose by it,
for when maturing time arrives a few months later,
and optimum condition of the soil is needed to make
the crop, we cannot obtain it, for it reached that point
at planting time, several months ago, and the soil is
now hard and solid just when it ought to be in the
very pink of condition to support the crop in the mak-
ing. Soils differ largely in respect to settling, and
packing, and the following figures must be taken ap-
proximately.

When a field of our ordinary soil is plowed once
a year 10 inches deep it will throw up a seed bed about
15 inches high, after this has been harrowed and

PACKING AND FALLOWING 71

disced and smoothed over it will measure about 14
inches.

Now we have seen that in plowing we have
gained about 5 inches, divide the gain by 2, this gives
us 214 inches. This is the best condition for crops
when the ground has settled or been packed down
about 2% inches, making the seed bed 12% inches.
This same rule applies to any depth of plowing, for
instance, if we plow 8 inches and raise a seed bed 12
inches, the gain is 4 inches, divide 4 by 2 gives 2.
Therefore a 12-inch seed bed is at its best when settled
or packed down 2 inches, i. e., 10 inches deep.

Requirements of Different Crops.

There is also some difference in crops, the optt-
mum for small grain calling for about one-half an inch
more packing than other crops. In dry farming this
best physical condition of the soil as regards its den-
sity is not so intense, so much packed as that in the
eastern or humid states, because we have to allow a
certain percentage for the accumulation of moisture
which the eastern farmer need not bother his head
about.

For instance, a greater density of the soil mass
than the figures given above would be the optimum
for root assimilation, if that were the only point to
be considered ; but it would not be nearly as favorable
for the penetration of moisture, and since both are
most important factors in production, we take the
mean, the best all around for both reasons. Dry farm-
ers who have been wrought up by reading packing
literature sometimes wonder how it is that a field of
small grain which gives magnificent promise at the
start, all of a sudden when dry weather comes seems
to stand still and begins to peter out.

Overpacked at Maturing Time.

The answer to this conundrum usually is, that by

overpacking the soil was brought to its best physical

72 PARSONS ON DRY FARMING

condition at the start, and as it became more and more
packed by rains, it became too solid, held the moisture
too much on the surface, and when dry weather came
the crop suffered. Vigorous growth at the start with
short straw or stalks and a falling off at maturing time
is nearly always a sign of too solid a seed bed.

Shallow plowing, a heavy flood and then dry
weather are often responsible for this condition even
in the absence of all artificial packing. In the same
manner winter wheat when too much packed by the
tramping of cattle is liable to be injured and its yield
reduced. It should never be pastured excepting when
the ground is frozen solid; there are exceptions, per-
haps, but it is better to take no chances.

Little Artificial Packing Required.

The sum of my experience in this matter is that
while some very light soils may be excepted; as a gen-
eral rule, in our ordinary loams, little artificial pack-
ing is needed in dry farming; that land will reach its
optimum condition at about the right time for matur-
ing a crop, which is also the best time for yield, if
allowed to lie fallow for a month or two after being
thoroughly disced and harrowed. The fallow for win-
ter wheat, of course, should never be packed.

No packing is needed: for the ‘corn and “the
sorghum field, for this can all be done with the disc
and the harrow.

This cuts our packing down to compacting the
land for immediate planting after plowing. This is
something we never recommended, but if small grain
is planted this way, the soil should be thoroughly com-
pacted an inch or two, more or less, according to the
rule given above, either by alternate discing and har-
rowing or by using a corrugated wheel packer.

For instance, if the ground is plowed 10 inches
and the seed bed is 15 inches deep, the optimum is
12% inches. This should be the depth of the seed bed

PACKING AND FALLOWING 73

in July; therefore, at planting time in May we reduce
the seed bed an inch and a half or two inches, leaving
an inch or so for nature to further pack the ground
between May and July.

Sod is so elastic that no harm can be done to it
by packing whenever it is expedient to do so to smooth
the field.

When sod is plowed shallow, as Campbell advises,
it has also to be packed or the horses will bring it
home with them under the harrow.

Deep Plowed Sod Needs No Packing.

When sod is plowed deep (not to play with, but
to raise a crop on) if it is thoroughly disced and har-
rowed alternately until fine enough to cultivate as it
ought to be to obtain results, it will not need any
further packing.

By packing the seed row, and not the whole sur-
face, we give it the advantage for germination pur-
poses, because being more compact, it will steal the
surplus from the other whenever there is any free
water moving, and by this means facilitate the estab-
lishment of the minute seedlings in times when pie
cipitation is scarce.

Nearly all the seeding implements, by means of
wheels or other devices, provide the necessary packing
for this work.

Packing Will Not Cause Moisture to Rise.

The contention of Campbell and some others that
by packing the seed bed, we can cause the moisture to
rise from the subsoil is erroneous. In times of drouth
the seed bed slowly dries out from the top down, even
when the subsoil is carrying perhaps to feet of 17%
moisture and not losing an ounce a day. We tested
this out in the following dry years: » 1893, 1894, 1908,
I9IO and IgI1, in the orchard, the summer-fallow and
in fields planted to crops, by taking and weighing and
keeping tab of the subsoil every few days. The

74 PARSONS ON DRY FARMING

farmer, however, will always obtain some kind of a
crop when by deep plowing it is rooted in the subsoil.
Various Packing Implements.

We may call an implement a subsurface packer
er an underground roller if we like, but if it moves
on the surface, it packs from the surface down; be-
cause it also scrapes up a little dust on the surface, it
need not throw dust in our eyes as to the work it does.

Nature packs from the bottom up, and this is the
best kind of packing.

To fill up the air spaces between the furrow slices,

the disc is the best machine because of its strong
lateral pressure.
_ The disc is also safe to use on clay, packers and
rollers are not. Some friends of ours in New Mexico-
lost some fine crops through not understanding this
point ; their soil was heavy clay loam and the moisture
together with the packing made brick of it.

Professor Waldron at one of the Dry Farming
Congresses gave us some interesting information on
packing experiments, and in this connection I would
like to say that I can always agree with a professor
when he does practical work in the field. He told
us, and I can report the same from my own experience,
that the strips of land which were packed did not yield
any more than those which were disced and in some
cases the strips which were not packed with the packer
yielded a trifle more.

Now if a man plows a piece of land and then har-
tows and packs, he will make a trifle better yield than
if he only plowed and harrowed; but if he plows and
harrows and discs, he will be a trifle ahead of the two
former. The philosophy of this is: Every time you
work the land, you add a little to the yield.

Mistakes in Summer-Fallowing.

I read an account once in some dry farm litera-

ture, as to how we should prepare the summer-fallow.

PACKING AND FALLOWING 75

We were to plow it 5 or 6 inches, then harrow it, then
pack it, then cultivate it every time a crust formed.

Some men manage to keep the wolf from the
docr by plowing 5 or 6 inches, but they don’t get
wealthy at it. This depth of plowing will hardly ac-
commodate an inch and a half of rain, and if there is
any moisture already in the soil, less than that. Then
for fear it might take in more than its share of mois-
ture, we are told to pack it. Now if the writer had a
grain of sense, he surely would know enough (if pack-
ing were needed at all) to let the rain soak in first and
then pack it some time afterwards.

To cultivate a fallow every time a crust forms is
nonsense. When is the farmer to eat his meals?

Proper Fallowing.

It is very profitable to raise wheat by the fallow
method; in the dry lands of California, Utah, Oregon
and other states, people are becoming rich at it, and
where land is cheap, it is almost as easy to have two
wheat patches as one.

The land should be plowed at least 9 or Io inches
when the weeds are carpeting the soil about 6 inches
high ; here we get some humus.

It should be harrowed smooth and then disced and
cross-disced without lapping, leaving it until another
crop of weeds shows up.

This time it may be disced and cross-disced again,
allowing the team to straddle the ridges made by the
first discing so as to reverse the process.

The last of the weeds may then be cultivated out
at wheat planting time in August or September and
even if there are a few left, the frost will get them
before they mature.

When water falls on more or less dry fallow land,
it goes in until it stops. Now why does it stop? Be-
cause it requires a certain amount of water to support
capillary action.

76>: PARSONS ON DRY FARMING

How Water is Stored in Subsoil.

Four or five days after a storm, when all capillar-
ity has ceased, we dig down as far as dry dirt; if the
precipitation has been 2 inches, we find about a foot
of wet dirt above this dry dirt. This upper foot of
damp dirt in ordinary wheat soil will be found carry-
ing by test about 17% of its total weight in water.
Presently another storm arrives and we get another
2 inches; the dry dirt takes it in again, and we get
another foot; we leave it a week for capillarity to have
full sway, and after it has stopped moving, we test
it again; it still carries the same percentage, about 17.

Therefore we see that 17% is about all we can
carry in ordinary soils; but we can save up perhaps
Io feet of it. What a chance for wheat and corn
whose roots will go into this subsoil from 4 to Io feet!

Testing Action of Soil Waters.

We have seen that dry dirt has no power to at-
tract this moisture, for the dry dirt is below it, yet
capillarity stops. If we dig out some of this dry dirt
and put it above it, does it start up capillary action?
No. Some argue that it does. Now instead of arguing
why don’t they try it? This is a most important point
in dry farming and can be proved so easily, by obtain-
ing a little dirt out of the subsoil, putting some dry
dirt above it and some dry dirt below it, and watching
results. A mason jar or an ordinary drinking glass
can be used. The dirt, of course, must be taken from
a subsoil which is dry below for this is the true con-
dition of a dry farm subsoil.

On bottom land with water at Io or 12 feet con-
ditions are entirely different. The percentage which
a soil will hold against capillarity and gravity varies
with its quality. Some clays and humus soils hold
as ‘much as 20 and 25%.

*- Qn my ranch we have about too feet of dry sub-
soil under our fields, maybe more, but this is as deep

PACKING AND FALLOWING 77

as I have been, and anyone can understand that if the
water were to fade away into this dry dirt by capillary
action, it would be absolutely impossible to dry farm.

Out of this 17% moisture that we are able to hold,
the crops can appropriate only about Io parts, leaving
7 in the soil; therefore, if we can accumulate in the
fallow about 5 feet of moisture we have in the neigh-
borhood of Io inches of water, and out of this 8 inches
available for crops. This 5 feet of moist soil contain-
ing 8 inches of available water is sufficient to raise a
crop.

How Water Escapes From Soil.

The only way it can get out of the subsoil is by
air movement, evaporation through the interstitial
spaces, and when this is checked by a seed bed Io
inches deep, the loss is a mere nothing. At the time
of my experiments in water storage, I was building
a shed, and while digging the holes for corner posts
found 3 feet of moisture. I partitioned off a corner
under this roofed-over, watertight shed and put a good
mulch on it a foot deep; this subsoil was then carrying
17% water; at the end of three years it was carrying
close on 15%, at 2 feet underground. There was no
capillary action and the dry dirt was in the same posi-
tion directly underneath it.

Some ten or fifteen years ago, when the public
was beginning to open an eye as to dry farm possibili-
ties, I was invited to read a paper. I advised the
farmers to get their moisture first and then raise a
crop on it. The agriculturists said that owing to cap-
illary action this was impossible. Dr. Alway, of the
University of Nebraska, however, thought different,
(he makes his experiments in the field as well as in
the laboratory). He placed some soil containing
about 8 inches of water in boxes, mulched it and
placed it under glass and grew wheat without a single
drop of rain.

78 PARSONS ON DRY FARMING

Get Water Into Subsoils.

All this goes to show that if you can accumulate
4 or 5 feet of moist earth in the summer-fallow you
can raise a crop of wheat on it, whether it rains or
not.

I feel like apologizing to the readers for harping
so much on this capillary problem, but this is the one
vital point upon which all dry farming hangs. The
best preparation for the winter-fallow in a blizzard
country is rough plowing.

While the ground is frozen there is no evapora-
tion to speak of; but as soon as the ground commences
to thaw in March a mulch should be put on, and even
in winter this may be necessary if the weather stays
warm and open, without any frost in the ground.

For raising large crops of wheat deep plowing in
conjunction with fallowing is rapidly coming into
vogue and will undoubtedly in many states be the
method of the future.

We do not need to go to Canada to raise wheat,
the only advantage they have over us is that the frost
does their subsoiling for them; that is the reason they
raise wheat. Give us a deep-tilling machine and a
good man behind it and we can beat them at their
own game.

CHAPTER IX

Roots and Subsoils

N the old agriculture, the farmer concerns himself
mainly about the seed bed, and the success of the
crop is supposed to be determined by the degree

of efficiency with which it is prepared.

In our new agriculture, it is most important that
the quality and condition of the subsoil enter into all
our calculations for it is quite a question which of the
two bears the greatest relation to yield.

After we get over the idea that dry soil can rob
wet soil of nearly all its moisture, we begin to get
down to the actual facts in the case, which are: That
we may have 100 feet of dry dirt underneath our
subsoils (which hold our crop moisture) or a foot of
dry soil above, but in spite of capillarity or gravity
or anything else, this subsoil can hold a certain per-
centage of moisture quite adequate for raising crops
which can escape only through the roots of said crops
—or very, very slowly by an almost imperceptible
evaporation.

It is this fact which makes dry farming possible,
for if we were to depend on the crops catching a little
moisture from each storm as it fell before it had time
to fade away by capillarity into the dry subsoil, we
would have a hard time indeed.

Instead of this, we find in practice that we can
save up from 3 to Io feet of moist soil almost any
year we have a mind to, and that this moist dirt will
carry a high enough percentage of water on which to
raise crops.

Our ordinary clay loam subsoils will carry usually
as high as 17 and sometimes 20%, sandy soils from
14 to 16 and some sage brush humus soils as high as

80 PARSONS ON DRY FARMING

21 to 25%. Therefore the difference between a rich
subsoil and a poor sandy one is this: The rich one
will hold the same amount of water in a less number
of feet. For instance, after say, 10 inches of rain have
fallen, we find the clay loam has approximately 5 feet
of 17% moisture, the sandy loam has 6 feet of 14%
moisture, but they both contain about 10 inches of
rainfall.

Now, which is the best for dry farming purposes?
The one which holds the most water, for the roots can
drink the more easily from an abundance, and have
less distance to travel in order to get it.

For these reasons we perceived that the clay loam
soils of the west with a clay subsoil are amongst the
very best for dry farming. Campbell says: “Get the
right amount of air and water into your soil.”

Now many of western soils and subsoils are bulk
for bulk near 50% air already; now what on earth do
we want to get any more air into our soils for?

This may be good policy in the water-logged soils
of the east and even in Lincoln, Nebraska, but in our
dry western states I would say get all the water you
can into the soil and let the air take care of itself.

Water and Air in Soils.

The philosophy of the whole matter is this:
When water goes into the soil, it drives the air out;
but when water dries out, the air goes in, and goes in
to any depth, for we are living under an atmospheric
pressure of about twelve pounds to the square inch.
As I have already explained in a former article, our
soils are never water-logged because all the free water
is taken up by the dry subsoils almost as quickly as
it falls.

Therefore, we may note that while the humid
farmer has to worry about the air and lets the water
take care of itself; the dry farmer worries about the
water and lets the air take care of itself.

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ROOTS AND SUBSOILS 81

Relation of Water to Root Growth.

Now comes a rather pertinent question: How do
the different percentages of water in the different sub-
soils affect the root growth of plants? They have a
very marked effect not only on the roots themselves,
but on the ultimate results, for if the subsoil does not
contain the necessary amount of water, the roots do
not go into it; cannot penetrate it, and the crop is
more or less of a failure. A farmer would naturally
suppose that the largest, sturdiest roots, such as corn
roots for instance, would possess a better penetrating
quality than such roots as those of wheat, rye, etc.

We find, however, that for some reason or other,
rather the opposite is the case.

Unfortunately, I can give only the results of tests
and experiments made on my own ranch, and soils,
and cannot guarantee that these results would be ab-
solutely the same on other soils and under other con-
ditions; the difference, however, would be relative
only, varying as the soil varies. I find that the roots
of all crops will penetrate a subsoil easily and readily
which contains its full quota of film moisture, from
14 to 17% or thereabouts. When the plowing is shal-
low, and the subsoil inadequately protected, evapor-
ation may reduce this to 8 or 9 or 12%; then the
trouble begins, for the roots instead of going down,
spread out on the surface.

Some subsoils are harder than others and require
more moisture to make them pervious.

There is also a difference in roots; those of rye
will penetrate almost anything which is not less than
10 or 12% wet, wheat and barley 12 to 14%, and those
of corn any ordinary subsoil not less than 13 or 15.
Soft sandy subsoils are easy for the roots to enter even
when these percentages are somewhat reduced. The
roots of corn and especially sorghum seem to possess
a greater facility for extracting a low percentage

82 PARSONS ON DRY FARMING

of moisture from the soil than those of small grain.
The roots of corn at the period of their greatest
growth will often grow two inches a day and those
of small grain will not be far behind.
Every cubic inch of soil a few inches below the
surface will contain from three to four hair roots and
these can extract about all the available moisture.

How Roots Absorb Water.

Here the question arises: How can the roots
absorb moisture from soil granules with which they
are not in actual contact?

As I have already shown, our soils will hold against
active capillarity and gravity somewhere about 15
or 17% water. If we take some of this soil and place
dry soil against it, above it or below it; the moisture
does not move into the dry soil; there is nothing but
a slight blending at the point of contact where the
wet tapers off into the dry.

This sub-active capillarity at the point of contact
if it amounts only to a quarter of an inch enables the
root hairs to abstract moisture from say one-fourth of
an inch on either side of them, making one-half an
inch in all; therefore, when hunting for root hairs with
a powerful magnifying glass, they will be found usu-
ally nearly every half inch or so.

We might ask: Why does this subactive capil-
larity stop where it does? Because there is not
enough water to keep it going. The thinner the film
on the granule, the tighter it is held and the harder
to move. A granule in 17% land can take and hold
a 17% film from free water; this is the limit of its
power. Free water offers no opposition, but taking
water from another granule is quite a different propo-
sition. According to theory if a dry granule is placed
against a wet granule, since they both have the same
capillary pull, it will steal half its film, but in practice
it does not do this, no doubt owing to the extra fric-

ROOTS AND SUBSOILS 83

tion of dragging it off the other granule, therefore we
find that a dry granule can take only half a film less
about 10% more or less from a wet granule, and this,
of course, brings the whole process to a dead stop
inside of 10 or more granules. This action stops in
soils when the moisture is reduced to somewhere
about 6%. In root investigations we find, therefore,
that where the hair roots are not too far apart they are
able to assimilate nearly all the available moisture;
but where they are far apart, such as the roots of trees
for instance, we find after a long dry spell streaks of
dry dirt where the root hairs absorbed the moisture,
and wet or damp streaks where they were unable to
reach it. In my dry farming orchard, after two
months drouth in 1908, I found close to the tree where
there were no hair roots at 2 feet underground, about
16% moisture, 5 feet from the tree 14%, 10 feet from
the trees where most of the hair roots were, only
about 11%.

We encounter many difficulties in film water in-
vestigations owing to the fact that there are no appli-
ances to assist in this particular variety of research
work. The granules can be examined and watched
only under glass or else evaporation carries off the
film; the glass makes trouble for the microscope,
owing to refraction; besides which the reflectors are
arranged for work with slides containing a section of
the object to be examined, and are not rightly placed
for throwing light on a growing root in a test tube.
Some of these difficulties, however, can be overcome,
but we have not the space at our command for a
description of the method.

Roots can penetrate almost anything that contains
the requisite amount of moisture; they are like very
fine hairs and work their way through the interstitial
spaces ; then when they commence to grow and harden
up, they crowd the soil granules and make room for

84 PARSONS ON DRY FARMING

themselves; thus we can understand that the root hair
of a tree may find an inperceptible pore in a rock,
eventually swell up, and perhaps split it all to pieces.

When the subsoil is not wet enough for the roots
of crops to go into it, they spread over the surface of
it like a fan; then if some very wet weather occurs,
the tips may turn down and work their way in, but
the root structure is poor and shows it in the crop.

Root Growth in Subsoils.

In a week or two from time of sprouting, the
roots of most crops begin to reach the subsoil under
the seed bed, then comes the question: Has the sub-
soil been put in condition by deep plowing to receive
those roots?

On the answer to this question depends the crop.

The root system of crops and trees expands more
quickly under dry farming methods than under irriga-
tion or humid farming.

On my Colorado ranch, the roots of cherry trees
planted 20 feet apart met in the row in seven years;
those of apple trees 40 feet apart in twelve years. The
roots of the cherry trees attained a depth of about 7
feet ; those of the apples Io to I5.

At first I was afraid to plant a commercial orchard ;
all the agriculturists I consulted said it would be
impossible to hold enough water for crops above a dry
subsoil hundreds of feet deep, that capillarity would
take it all down into the dry ground until there was
nothing available left.

In order to try this out, I planted a dozen trees in
1886, and kept them well cultivated; at the end of 1890
I had to feet of moisture saved up in the subsoil. |
naturally began to study the moisture question and
discovered that active capillarity stopped in my best
soil at about 17%. This was all I needed; anything
can be raised on 17% soil and I planted a commercial
orchard in 1894 after securing 3 feet of moisture by

ROOTS AND SUBSOILS 85

fallowing. The profits to date have been about five
thousand dollars for fruit, less about one thousand for
trees and expenses. In planting trees, a question often
asked is, if it would pay to dynamite the ground. I do
not know; but what I do know is that the roots of
trees will go through almost anything but solid rock
if the moisture conditions are right.

Absorption of Moisture and Rising of Sap.

The manner of the absorption of moisture by the
roots and the rising of the sap have never been satis-
factorily settled by plant physiologists, and now dry
farming is beginning to shed some light on this
subject.

The old idea from humid countries was as usual
a conception born of an abundance of water; that the
roots absorbed the soil solution by means of osmotic
currents. In dry farming, farming on film water, we
believe there are no osmotic currents; that film water
cannot support osmosis!

When a root hair engages a granule, the moisture
passes into it without any visible return current. It
is quite possible, however, that osmosis may act where
there is plenty of water, although it seems certain that
the roots of dry farm crops do not in any way depend
upon it.

The theory of osmosis fitted in admirably with
the root pressure theory which is to this effect, that
absorption of the soil solution by osmosis created a
pressure which caused the sap to rise and that this
continued absorption caused more pressure and more
sap to rise and so on.

It has been only in the last decade that scientists
have awakened to the fact that a tree will grow for
weeks without any root; that a cottonwood, for in-
stance, may be cut down in April, and it will leaf out
and not die perhaps until June or July; that cuttings
will live and put forth leaves without any root and

86 PARSONS ON DRY FARMING

that in the tropics there are some air plants (in which
the sap rises) which never have roots.

Some well known French scientists of Paris de-
cided to sift this matter further. They discovered first
that there actually was considerable pressure in the
sap cells of a tree; they also found out that when the
sap was rising, the protoplasm in the cells was ex-
panding and contracting, we might say sucking or
pumping, that when it was rising fast, the pumping
was rapid and vice versa; that when through hard
frost or some other injury to the tree, the protoplasm
in the cells was destroyed, the sap ceased to rise in
those cells. This convinced them that the protoplasm
had everything to do with the rising of the sap and
finally microscopic investigation showed the expan-
sion and contraction of the protoplasm under the stim-
ulus of heat and light.

This theory is also in line with everything else
in nature for everything organic and living is built up
of protoplasmic cells, from the smallest bacillus which
is composed of one or two, to man who is composed
of billions.

All plants, all cellulose, all wood is built up of
these cells, every part of the tree or plant.

The amoeba, one of the lowest microscopic forms
of animal life, is nothing but one or two of these same
cells of protoplasmic jelly which floats about in water
and obtains its nourishment by sucking it in and
squeezing it out again. This is just what the cell in
the tree is supposed to do.

Effect of Heat.

Biology teaches that every thing that has life can
convert heat into energy. This seems to be the case
in the vegetable world; the trees and plants are more
or less dormant in winter, but as the heat of the sun
increases in spring the vegetation warms up, the pro-
toplasm begins to work, the sap rises.

ROOTS AND SUBSOILS 87

Have we any other evidence that the heat does
the work? Yes, the heat is used up or rather rendered
latent in the tree by the work it does, and if we reverse
the process we can get all the heat back again.

To reduce a tree or any other vegetable matter to
its original elements we dry it and set fire to it. The
result is we get so much ashes, so much gas and
smoke, and so much heat. We have already seen how
the heat was acquired; the ashes are the mineral ele-
ments out of the ground and the gases go back to the
atmosphere whence they were taken by the leaves.

If we burn 100 pounds of dry vegetable matter we
get less than ten pounds of ashes, which means that
less than one-tenth of a plant or tree comes out of the
soil. The other nine-tenths which are mainly carbon,
oxygen and hydrogen are derived from the water and
atmosphere.

The main constituent in the composition of vege-
table matter is carbon acquired by the leaves from the
carbonic acid gas (carbon dioxide) of the atmosphere.
The mineral elements are usually less than one-tenth
although in some soils where there is plenty of lime
or silica they often approach this amount. Supposing,
however, they are one-tenth of the total dry weight,
how strong would the soil solution have to be to de-
liver this amount of mineral matter to the plant?

Strength of Soil Solution Necessary.

This has often been worked out in theory by sci-
entists, but Professor Atkinson in the number of this
magazine of December 15th, tells us how it was prac-
tically tested out by Professor Thom with growing
plants. According to these experiments it requires
in ordinary soil somewhere about 400 pounds of water
to make a pound of dry vegetable matter; we have
already seen that only about one-tenth of this pound
comes out of the soil, so that all this 400 pounds of
water will have to carry will be one-tenth of one pound

&8 ~ PARSONS ON DRY FARMING

ofmineral matter,’ A: tenth of one) pound in yoo 4s
only 1 in 4,000. Therefore a good ordinary soil solu-
tion may carry only I part of solid matter in 4,000 of
water. The soil solution is not mud, it is not fine soil,
it is not even soup or muddy water; it is clear water
fit to drink; in fact, some waters used for drinking pur-
poses are pretty strong soil solutions.

Dana says that all water out of the ground con-
tains more or less of the following minerals necessary
to plant life: Iron, potash, phosphorus, soda, lime,
sulphur, silica, magnesia, chlorine, etc., but these
would not be found, of course, in rain or distilled
water.

As Professor Atkinson remarks, the richer the
soil the richer the soil solution, and the richer the
solution the less water required to make the crop.

Humus is a tremendous factor in providing a rich
soil solution not only on account of the predigested
mineral elements it contains, but on account of the
acids evolved, which render different elements of the
soil soluble in water. !

Some hold the opinion that roots are able to strain
the soil solution, accepting some elements, rejecting
others. There is little evidence of this. In a soil rich
in potash, and the soil solution full of silica, we notice
it (the silica) in all the crops, the same with lime, with
everything, and when the solution is too alkaline the
soda goes into the plants and kills them. The proba-
bility is that since solutions existed before the plants,
the plants had to adapt themselves to them, or perish
in the attempt.

CHAPTER X

The First Year on a Dry Farm

RY farming is done mostly on moisture already
D conserved in the soil. Nature does not do this
for us, we have to-do it for ourselves; there-
fore, although I might draw up a lovely program for
the new settler whereby he might raise everything
desirable for himself and family and the stock, it
would be just so much waste paper if the weather
happened to be dry the first year and no moisture al-
ready in the ground. This is a condition any new set-
tler may be called upon to face and he should be pre-
pared for it. When a dry farmer understands his
business there is nothing to worry about in a dry year
any more than there is for the business man when
times are dull, but his first year is a different matter,
and if he should happen to find it a dry one, which may
come to pass once in every ten years or so, he cannot
raise very much; but he can use his time to such
advantage, that he can get his money back and more
too, the next year.
What to Do First.

The thing to do is to plow and break sod, and not
to quit or give up simply because the ground is dry.
Let it be thoroughly understood that there is no harm
whatever in dry plowing, provided it is not planted
until thoroughly soaked up and settled. The tilth of
the soil at the time of plowing matters nothing; but at
time of planting it matters everything, and the rough-
est kind of land can be put in shape after the snows
of winter and the rains of spring.

For this work we need horse power and there is
no sense in starting to dry farm with ponies. If a
walking plow is used, three horses weighing at least

go PARSONS ON DRY FARMING

1300 apiece are needed; the Spalding is the only riding
plow fit for dry farm purposes, it does beautiful work
and requires four horses at least. The new settler will
find himself surrounded by neighbors, some of whom
live from hand to mouth by skimming the surface; but
let him beware of their advice, for his whole future
and that of his family may depend on the work he does
this first year.
Shallow Plowing Courts Failure.

It is true that in a good year, like last for instance,
the surface farmer may raise even thirty bushels to
the acre, but every cent he makes will go like water
as soon as a dry year comes; whereas the deep plow-
ers can make forty to fifty bushels in good years and
close to thirty in dry years. If everybody plowed
deep, 8 inches for sod and at least Io for old land, there
would be no dry years. After the first year the deep
plower always has moisture, he has money in his
pocket, he doesn’t worry when the dry weather comes,
he mulches his crops and goes fishing.

If the farmer goes on his new place in the fall of
the year, and there is considerable moisture under-
neath the sod, it would be safe to plant winter wheat
if he can get it in by September; but if the ground is
medium dry it would be much better to plant rye
which is the safer crop of the two, and can be planted
any time up to the holidays and used as grain or cut
for early hay the following June.

Plowing can be continued sometimes more or less
all winter; a friend of mine near Denver was plowing
this winter with 2 inches of frost in the ground, using
a Spalding.

Corn and Sorghum Best for First Crop.

If the new settler goes on his place in the spring,
he had better confine himself to such crops as corn and
sorghum.

To attempt to raise small grain on newly plowed

THE FIRST YEAR ON A DRY FARM ot

sod land which has not been fallowed, is taking des-
perate chances, but if he should determine to take
such a chance, then I would advise him to plant hard ~
Russian wheat. The earlier the ground is plowed the
better the chance for a crop.

Corn land even plowed in March will yield more
heavily than the same land plowed in May. After a
wet snow before the frost is all out the farmer can
often cut the upper two inches of the sod with the disc
thus making the plowing not only easier but quicker,
when all the frost is out and the land ready for the
plow.

Reasons for Deep Breaking.

In breaking sod 8 or g inches the idea is to make
a good deep seed bed, raise a good crop at the start,
and also convert the grass and roots into humus by
burying them where the atmosphere cannot steal the
gases; which will keep the field fertile for years.

To advise the plowing of sod 2 or 3 inches, taking
off the very cream of the soil, leaving it in the sun to
be burned up and dissipated into the atmosphere is
a crime against agriculture and an outrage to our in-
telligence.

It takes work, but it pays in the end to thoroughly
fine the surface of the new breaking before seeding;
my rule has always been: Work it enough so that it
can be cultivated.

The easiest way to do this is to have one team
plowing, and another discing and harrowing alter-
nately, catching it fresh from the plow; but if the
farmer has only one team, then I would advise plow-
ing two hours, then discing and harrowing two hours.
On a hot day, sod will commence to bake in a couple
of hours; it should be worked up as quickly as plowed.

No Packing Necessary.

If this is properly done no packing is needed, but

if the farmer wishes to flatten out the sod with a roller

g2 PARSONS ON DRY FARMING

there is no harm in it for sod is so elastic that it is
almost impossible to injure it by packing unless it con-
tains a heavy percentage of clay. When the sod is
disced before plowing and then disced again on the
other side after plowing it can be readily understood
that it is pretty well cut to pieces. It was all very
well to plow sod shallow and sit on the fence and wait
for it to rot in grandfather’s time, but this is not an
attitude worthy of the 2oth century farmer with 2oth
century implements. Flax is a good crop to plant on
the new break and if the weather is favorable a good
crop may be secured the first year. It is often said
that flax will grow on shallow plowing; the truth is,
it will stand poor plowing better than some other
things; but like everything else, the ordinary yields
can be doubled by good work.

Potatoes sometimes do better on sod than on any-
thing else, but will grow only on certain soils, and no
one yet has ever been able to determine what consti-
tutes a potato soil; therefore the only way is to try it,
or find out from the neighbors.

Plant Alfalfa As Early As Possible.

If the new settler has started his farm in time to
do some fall plowing he should certainly plant some
alfalfa in the spring. The whole thing in getting a
stand of alfalfa is to plow deep, and a few acres should
be planted if only for an experiment either in rows
or broadcasted or drilled.

By planting a few acres every year the farmer
soon has an abundance of feed, and while he is waiting
for the alfalfa, fall rye will be found the best thing
for hay where quantity is desired.

Winter Wheat the Money Crop.

In the spring or early summer when the crops
which he has decided to plant are all in, what can he
turn his hand to next? Now is the time to plow and
prepare for winter wheat. This is the great grain

THE FIRST YEAR ON A DRY FARM _ 93

crop for the farmer who wishes to raise something
for market.

If the ground is properly prepared by deep plow-
ing as recommended above, there is no reason that
land put into this grain cannot pay for itself, the
first crop.

After the plowing there is nothing much to do
but keep the weeds out until planting time in August
or September. The best way to do this and at the
same time catch all the moisture that comes, is to
disc and cross disc without lapping. This ridges the
land in small squares and will hold any cloudburst that
comes unless there is considerable slope.

When planting time comes the very best wheat to
plant is Turkey Red, the finest selected seed. I have
tried many varieties; some freeze out or tramp out
when the cattle are on, some are not vigorous and in-
clined to rust, and some in mild winters and wet
springs will outyield it, but on a general average it
beat any other variety we can plant in general hardi-
ness, drouth resistance and yield.

For market purposes spring wheat should never
be planted on the dry farm in a climate where winter
wheat can be grown.

Trees On New Land.

A question often asked by the new-comer is: “Can
I plant trees or alfalfa on newly broken sod?” Yes,
both. The trouble with trees is allowing the sod to
get into the hole and make air spaces around the
roots; this will burn out anything. To avoid this
trouble is very easy. Plow so as to leave a dead fur-
row where the row of trees is to be planted; then take
the plow and work up and down this dead furrow until
all the loose sod is banked up on either side and dig
the holes in the straight dirt using what you throw out
to cover the roots when planting.

As far as alfalfa is concerned, planting it on sod

94 PARSONS ON DRY FARMING

got a black eye from the surface farmers, for nothing
on earth can be expected to do its best on new land
plowed 3 inches. Alfalfa will do much better on sod
than on old land if the soil is light and the seed bed
prepared as we recommend. On heavy soil it will do
well either on sod or old land. I rather prefer the
new break myself when properly plowed 8 or g inches
and well fined down.
Implements Needed.

As regards implements on the dry farm besides
the plow, a good steel lever harrow and a reversible
disc are needed to prepare the seed bed; an ordinary
corn cultivator with three blades in each row, six in
all, is good for all row crops; and for late cultivating
of wheat there is nothing like the spring tooth weeder.

As far as the packer is concerned, I find that land
plowed a month or two before planting, any fallowed
land in fact, is better without it. When land is plowed
for immediate planting an extra discing and a harrow-
ing equals the effect of packing and yields about one-
half a bushel more per acre.

Some assert that it is easier to reduce sod by first
packing it before tearing it up with the disc and har-
row, Others never use a roller or packer of any kind;
but if such an implement is needed the combined clod
crusher and packer is obviously the best; this is made
in the usual model, but with the wheels rough and
corrugated at the edges.

Dry Farming Profitable.

Dry farming is a very profitable variety of agri-
culture at present because if the farmer follows the
deep plowing system he can produce crops much
cheaper than the irrigator and yet obtain irrigation
prices, and it will be a great many years before the
3- to 6-inch plowers abandon their present methods
and begin to flood the market with crops which will
eventually reduce prices. The surface system of west-

THE FIRST YEAR ON A DRY FARM — 95

ern farming which means raising crops by intensive
cultivation instead of deep plowing means long hours,
hard work and small crops.

It takes very little more time and work to plow
10 inches than it does 6, it means simply one more
horse to the plow, and the subsequent cultivation nec-
essary is seldom more than to keep the weeds out.

Why Farms Were Abandoned.

Hundreds of settlers in eastern Colorado aban-
doned their farms in 1892 to 1894 because they started
in plowing their sod 2 to 3 inches in 1893; then ’94
was dry, the top of their subsoil was dry because there
was not enough plowed sod to mulch it; they could
not get the plow point in, and the plow down; there
was no chance to make a seed bed and little or noth-
ing was raised.

There was another side to this picture, however.
Some came from the New England states and plowed
8 or 9 inches; a few came from Germany and Sweden;
they plowed deep because they knew no other way;
every one of these staid; they are rich men today.

For the guidance of the new settler, I offer the fol-
lowing rules which I have found by nearly forty years’
experience to be of value in making money at dry
farming:

Rules to Follow.

Keep all land mulched as far as possible winter
and summer, the exception being that land plowed in
the fall for spring planting is best left in the rough
state until the frost is out when evaporation starts;
then, however, it should be harrowed over.

To catch run-off all crops should be cultivated
across the slope rather than up and down with the
slope. Fallowed land should never be packed. Fal-
low land for a few months before planting; a few
weeks are better than nothing. When raising small
grain plow in the spring for fall crops and in the fall

96 PARSONS ON DRY FARMING

for spring crops. When there is no moisture in the
land for winter wheat, plant rye which is just as profit-
able. In planting alfalfa pack very lightly in the seed
rows and not at all the rest of the surface. When
planting shade or orchard trees set out a whole row
and keep them cultivated.

When there is a good mulch on your corn in dry
weather it does more harm than good to keep on
cultivating.

Plowing dry in the fall is better than no plowing,
for such land nearly always becomes soaked and set-
tled with the winter and spring precipitation, when it
can be fined down with a little discing and harrowing.

Never list corn in the hard ground without pre-
vious plowing.

Always provide a deep seed bed for alfalfa and
never plant anything with it.

Never disc in a crop on the stubble, the only ex-
ception being rye for hay.

Try to mulch every crop at the critical period,
which is when the spring rains have stopped and the
summer rains have not begun.

Plant largely of the surest crops, such as corn,
sorghum, rye, winter wheat and flax.

Get your feed first and then buy the cattle to eat
it. Plow deeper if you can, but make the minimum
for sod 8 inches, for old land 10, provided, of course,
that you have the soil.

"399.44 000‘9—Ope0]0D ‘Suosued "Yy ‘yy JO Wey Uo da9eq SoYyou! ZL, peaMmojd Puey Uo Us0D 9pnziiy YBIH

CHAPTER XI

Keeping Track of Moisture

much interest in this matter and we received

so many pertinent questions that the time
seems opportune to present to the farmers a way for
determining themselves the action of moisture in their
more or less dry soils as opposed to the action of water
in the wet soils of the humid states which so far are
the only soil and water physics in print, and which are
taught by many agriculturists without regard to local
conditions.

With a few simple implements, some of which he
can make himself, the farmer can tell, by a few min-
utes’ work every day, exactly what moisture there is
in any particular field, how much any crops left in
the field when taken off, whether there is enough to
justify planting another crop without any further fal-
lowing, whether the moisture is coming up or down,
what kind of soil culture accumulates most moisture,
and what kind conserves it the best.

YQ": previous articles on soil moisture aroused so

Determine Amount of Moisture.

If he wishes to go further than this and is pretty
good at figures he can, by comparing his moisture
notes of vacant blocks of soil with those of blocks oc-
cupied by crops, determine for himself what amount
of moisture any tree or crop is using up or has used
up during the growing season. When a man takes his
soil auger and finds that he has two or three feet of
moist subsoil under his 10-inch plowing and only one
under his 3- or 4-inch, he has an object lesson on his
own place which impresses him more than any insti-
tute talk.

98 PARSONS ON DRY FARMING

The Soil Auger.

This soil auger is the most important implement
of all, and every farmer should have one. To make
one, the first thing to get is a common 2-inch wood
auger, such as any carpenter uses; the blacksmith
must then weld it onto a piece of common iron gas-
pipe about 4 feet long, with the ordinary thread for
screwing onto another piece at the end. A two-way

right-angled joint, a T in fact, is used
for the handle, and by taking this
off at any time more pipe can be
screwed on, and the length increased
as much as desired. This implement
is of as much value to the man about
to buy a ranch as it is to the man on
his own farm, for if he takes his auger
along he can sample the soil just as a
grocer does cheese, and by bringing
up dirt in the flanges of the auger

= can tell what kind of soil or subsoil
he is thinking of purchasing.

Soil A Used
Tia Beers (Solis If every buyer were to do this
and Subsoils. instead of “going it blind,” we would

not hear of so many cases in which men have bought
ranches and when they came to plow, finding out they
had no soil.

Method of Testing for Moisture.

The method of testing soil for moisture is very
simple. We take the auger, bore a hole as deep as
we want it, then bring up a chunk of dirt sticking to
the auger like a cork on a corkscrew, this we take
home and weigh it, keeping say just Io ounces of it;
we take this 10 ounces of dirt and place it in an oven
until all the moisture is baked out of it without burn-
ing it, which would take out the humus.

We then weigh it again and it weighs only 9
ounces, I ounce has gone; what was that ounce?

KEEPING TRACK OF MOISTURE 99

2
Water. In speaking of soil we usually use the words
per cent or percentage to denote proportion in a hun-
dred parts; therefore according to our test, if in ten
parts of damp soil we found one of water we would
find ten in a hundred, and we would call that soil 10%
wet, or soil carrying 10% of moisture.

The percentage method is the easiest way to cal-
culate moisture because supposing, for instance, we
wish to discover how much moisture is contained in
a given block or cube of dirt; all we have to do is to
take the percentage as above described, say one test
for each foot and then figure out the average percent-
age for the whole block; we then reduce the result to
inches and know just how much we have in the field
or in any particular cube of dirt.

The percentage differs as the weight of the soil
varies, sandy soils, for instance, weighing heavier than
clay soils, but an approximate estimate in every-day
average soil would be about 2 inches of water to every
foot of dirt carrying 10% moisture, therefore, if the
soil carried only 5%, a foot of dirt would carry only
I inch, and so on.

This refers to average soil weighing, when dry,
about 90 pounds to the cubic foot. Sandy soil will
often go 110 pounds to the cubic foot, and some clays
are as light as 75 pounds; a good average for ordinary
loams is about 90 pounds; these are, of course, dry
soil weights.

Application to Practical Work.

The next part of our program is to consider the
practical application of these moisture studies to the
work of the every-day farmer. We will suppose that
this gentleman has been raising a large crop of corn,
which has just been hauled off the field, and shocked
in the corral; he takes his auger, makes one or two
borings in different parts of the field, tests the dirt
and finds he has left in the field 4 feet of moist dirt

100 PARSONS ON DRY FARMING

carrying on an average 714% of moisture; can he risk
planting winter wheat on that, or can he not?

Seven and one-half per cent means about 1%
inches to the foot; therefore, he has in the 4 feet only
about 6 inches of water; but here is a most important
point to be remembered, that the last 5% of moisture
in the ground is unavailable, for when the water be-
comes that scarce in the ground the roots of plants are
unable to extract it; therefore, we may as well sub-
tract that 5%, which leaves him only 2 inches avail-
able water in 4 feet of moist soil. If the farmer is a
cautious man, and the fall is fine and dry, he will plant
no wheat with this amount of moisture, but perhaps
take a chance on rye.

He will then go over to his fallow land, which was
plowed to or 12 inches deep in May, he screws in the
auger, up comes a lump of wet dirt which will ball
in the hand, he has 5 feet of 15% dirt. Ah! he thinks
this is something like he figures it out; after deducting
the unavailable 5% he has 10% left, 2 inches of water
to each foot of dirt—io inches in the 5 feet—the wheat
goes in.

Determining Amount of Water Used by Crops.

In order to acquire an approximate idea of what
a crop is using up, these same experiments must be
made in the soil in which the crop is planted, and in
some soil of the same variety in which nothing is
planted; but all other conditions must correspond.

A patch of oats is planted, a small corner of the
same field is left fallow; it all contained the same
amount of moisture at the start; but when the oats
have ripened and been harvested, we find with the
help of the soil auger, that for as many feet as there
is any moisture, the ground contains only 4 inches;
while in the corner which was not planted we find 14
inches ; now it is easy to figure from this that the crop
used at least 10 inches in the making; for the precipi-

KEEPING TRACK OF MOISTURE IO

tation was the same on both, the evaporation about
the same (excepting a trifling amount saved by the
shade of the oats) and all other conditions approxi-
mately the same. Apropos of this matter | might re-
mark that in average weather, not too hot, it is my
experience on 8 inches; | mean by that, 8 inches of
water conserved in the ground.

The same test may be applied to trees. In mak-
ing tests in the orchard in dry weather or in fallow
land we often go through a dry crust into 17% moist
soil, and yet, as long as there is a good mulch, this
moisture does not waste, to any extent, by evapora-
tion, neither does it move by capillarity into the dry
crust above or into the dry subsoil 5 or 6 feet below.

Finding How Capillarity Works.

To observe the action of capillarity or root growth
in the soil, there is nothing better than a wooden box
about 18 inches or 2 feet deep, of which one side is
glass. An aperture can be cut in the side of almost
any box and a piece of glass, slightly larger than the
aperture, inserted on the inside; the dirt will hold it
in place.

We are told by some agriculturists that there is
no reason to plow deep because the moisture is always
coming up out of the subsoil to the roots of the crops
in the seed bed by capillary action, and Campbell says
pack the seed bed
to create capillary
action between the
subsoil and the seed
bed. Some farmers
who have never
tried this out write
that they are afraid
ee We ; ; to plow under ma-
Glass Front Box by Means of Which nure or litter for

Moisture Movements and Root Growth : :
May Be Hasily Studied. fear of impeding

102 PARSONS ON DRY FARMING

this action. Although nearly everyone believes it, the
whole thing is a delusion and cannot possibly happen
unless free water is present in the subsoil. In a former
article I have already given the scientific reasons for
this, but seeing is usually believing; so let us try it out
in the box so that we can base our farming on facts as
we find them. This action is supposed to take place in
dry weather, the water from the subsoil reinforcing
the moisture in the seed bed.

Testing for Practical Capillary Movements.

Therefore, in order to test this out; as soon as dry
weather commences we dig down about 2 feet into
the subsoil and half fill the box with the dirt; if the
soil was much loosened in the process, it should be
tamped as solid as it was in the field. We then fill
the upper half of the box with dry dirt, or nearly dry
dirt, and watch results through the glass. The mois-
ture line is easy to see, the dry dirt is light in color,
the damp dirt dark.

The box should be placed in a cool room and the
line watched every day.

Does it move up? Does it spread up and out in
the dirt above until all of it is one color? Unfortu-
nately for the old theories it will not do this unless
there is plenty of free water somewhere down below;
a condition rarely found on the dry farm.

Someone says pack it and it will move. Take a
board and place it on top of the dirt inside the box
and pile 100 pounds of rocks on it, then try 500—does
it rise?

Is there any way we can make it rise? Only by
supplying free water, which is never found in a true
dry farm subsoil excepting for a few days after a
storm before it has had time to soak down and become
film water. Farms on river bottoms and over water
at 9 or 10 feet cannot be considered dry farms. There
are many places along the Missouri, Yellowstone,

KEEPING TRACK OF MOISTURE 103

Musselshell and other rivers where the water is found

a few feet from the surface and the farms are virtually

sub-irrigated ; such lands are invaluable for alfalfa.
Amount of Water Carried by Subsoil.

A true dry farm subsoil after drainage (action of
capillarity and gravity) has ceased usually carries
about 15% to 17% of water; if it carries much more
than this, then there is free water in the interstitial
spaces and drainage has not yet ceased; but it seldom
lasts for more than a few days after precipitation. In
making these experiments there is no need to trust
entirely to sight; samples may be tested from any part
of the box by the method previously explained. Then
it is thoroughly understood by our farmers that in
dry weather there is no chance of getting the mois-
ture up to the crops, they will see the necessity of
plowing deep in order to get the crops down to the
moisture.

Free water, or rather water over and above what
each granule can retain as a film, is always found in
the top 3 or 4 inches for several days after wet weather,
and after harrowing we find it next morning coming
to the surface; this, however, is not from the subsoil—
it is simply the top inch robbing the second and third.
When the soil contains free water it will wet the hand
or anything in close contact with it; if it will not do
this, it is safe to estimate the percentage at less
than 20.

How Far Will Water Go in Dry Soil.

To discover how far water will go in dry earth,
it can be introduced into the box through a tube or
poured on the surface. When water is introduced into
the center of the dry dirt near the glass the farmer will
be surprised to see how little of it rises by capillarity,
even with plenty of free water the upward pull of cap-
illarity in soil is not equal to the combined downward
pull of capillarity and gravity (weight).

104 PARSONS ON DRY FARMING

After a day or so when all capillarity has ceased
in the box and the free water drained off; if the farmer
takes some of the wet dirt and tests it he will find it
holds somewhere from 14 to 17%, according to his soil,
and this will be the percentage his subsoil will hold
against any force or agency but evaporation. How-
ever well a field is mulched there is always a slight
evaporation on account of the air between the gran-
ules; but under 10-inch plowing evaporation may not
amount to one-fourth of 1% a month; but under
shallow plowing it may amount to 2 or 3%. Therefore,
in fallowed land with deep plowing and a fair amount
of cultivation, we may say that water stays where it
is put, until the crops use it up, and transpire it back
again into the atmosphere; otherwise it would be im-
possible to dry farm. The box with the glass window
may be used also for observing roots; corn or small
grain may be planted close to the glass and the roots
after a while will show through; even germination
may be investigated and corn tested by planting the
seeds under the dirt right against the glass.

Dr. Alway, of the University of Nebraska, who
teaches physics, mostly from experiments in the field,
tried these matters out pretty thoroughly when he
planted wheat and other plants in damp dirt in cylin-
ders; he tells us the roots went down 6 feet to mois-
ture instead of the moisture coming up to the roots,
and the plants grew and produced seed or grain under
a roof where no rain could reach them, and the tem-
perature up to 100 and 124’.

Prevailing Opinion on Capillarity Wrong.

Dr. Alway supports my contention that the pre-
vailing opinion about capillarity expressed by Camp-
bell and others is wrong, in these words: “The pre-
vailing opinion as to the extent to which water is lost
from dry land subsoils by evaporation following up-
ward capillarity movement appears to be without

KEEPING TRACK OF MOISTURE 105

experimental foundation.” Nothing could be clearer
than this.
Over Aeration.

Manure or straw or cornstalks can be plowed
under without cutting off capillarity which doesn’t
exist; but not too much in one place on account of
Over aeration which burns the crops. ‘Ten loads of
manure to the acre can hurt nothing, and the best way
to apply it is to disc it in on the surface in the fall and
plow the whole thing under, Io inches deep in the
spring. A field which has been regularly manured
and contains a goodly amount of humus will hold 20%
of moisture against drainage, while the same soil with-
out the manuring may not hold more than 15%.

CHAPTER XII

Dry Farming for Profit

RY farming in any locality where the soil is
good and deep and the precipitation 15 inches
or over should be very profitable work; but

if we take a trip through any of the dry states and
visit at many of the farms the conclusion seems to be
forced upon us that many of the dry farmers are farm-
ing for fun, not for profit.

One year not very long ago I was visiting with
Dr. Cook up at Cheyenne, and inspecting his fine crops
raised on g-inch plowing and only 3 inches of precipi-
tation during the growing season; but with the help
of several inches conserved by plowing in the fall.
While there I visited a ranch about twenty miles from
the city and a most astonishing sight met my gaze.
I beheld about 100 acres of oats, every one about 5 or
6 inches high and the whole field headed out and
more or less green.

When the owner came along I said to him, “How
on earth did you get such a peculiar looking field of
oats?”

“Isn’t it a freak?” he said. “You know I don’t
know very much about dry farming, and I read in
some literature to plow sod only about 2 or 3 inches,
which, not having heavy horses, suited me down to
the ground. After plowing I flattened out the sod
with a roller, ran a slanted harrow over it and put in
the oats.”

Dwarfed by Shallow Plowing.

“Well,” I said, “as an exhibit of plant dwarfing,
which they do so much of in Japan, it is one of the
most wonderful sights I have ever beheld.”

DRY FARMING FOR PROFIT 107

We then sent for a spade, and started to examine
the oats; we found that the sod was simply a mass of
roots like those of a plant in a flower pot, and when
we pulled up the oats the sod came with them.

We could not find a root anywhere which had
penetrated the soil underneath, and, of course, this
explained the mystery; the oats were root-bound in
2 inches of sod.

The trouble had been that the 2-inch covering was
not enough to hold the moisture in the subsoil and its
_ surface below the sod being dry the roots could not
possibly get into it, but the crop acquiring a little
moisture from passing showers was able to keep alive
and make a stunted growth.

This man got nothing but a little grazing off his
field, while another farmer in the same county who
had broken his sod 8 inches in the previous fall raised
45 bushels of oats to the acre.

The Usual Method Followed.

This man of the stunted oats intended to backset
his field the next year and waste some more seed try-
ing to farm on the other side of that 2-inch sod. I
eventually persuaded him to plow under the whole
thing 8 or g inches deep that same fall and put it into
Turkey Red. He rented two extra horses, which cost
him $50, and next year took off 33 bushels of hard
wheat per acre. This is the difference between farm-
ing for fun and farming for profit. I must admit, how-
ever, that it is a little harder work, as well as better
work, doing a good job of plowing, than it is to sit on a
sulky and plow 2 inches and then backset it and play
shuttlecock with the pieces of sod until they wear out.

Deep Plowing Saves Labor in Packing.

There is a class of farmers which never get
beyond 6-inch plowing; but they work night and day
with packers, cultivators and discs; they put as much
work into 50 acres as will do very well for 100 properly

108 PARSONS ON DRY FARMING

maneuvered. They raise, once in a while perhaps, 20
or even 30 bushels per acre in a wet year, but in aver-
age more or less dry seasons only about 10, and their
regular average for ten years or so would not be I5.
The labor expense on a crop of grain runs over I0
bushels, or rather the price thereof, so that practically
speaking, these men are making the wages of day
laborers only.

What is the remedy? Deeper plowing and avoid-
ing wasted effort.

Wasted Efforts in Farming.

It is wasted effort to endeavor to raise a crop on
3 inches of sod which requires 4 feet of root room. It
is wasted effort to plow old land 6 inches and raise
10 to 20 bushels when by plowing 12 at an increase of
cost of 50 cents an acre you can raise 40. It is wasted
effort to try to save a crop by intensive cultivation
when good plowing at the start would have assured a
profitable yield.

It is often wasted effort to plant a crop in July
which ought to be in by May, and to plant one in June
which should be in by March; and yet these things
are done on hundreds of farms. Cultivation at the
proper time is absolutely necessary for conservation
purposes; but after deep plowing it need not be nearly
so intensive as cultivation after shallow plowing, and
for some crops when the plowing is right, enough cul-
tivation to keep the weeds out will often suffice.

It is waste of time and money to cultivate crops
between rains; just in time for another crust to form
and have to go at it again. Light rains and even wind
storms will often restore the mulch by filling up the
crevices through which evaporation takes place.

The Critical Period.

The time to cultivate everything, the most critical
period in the life of the crop, is when the drouth sets
in. This usually occurs at the end of spring rains, be-

DRY FARMING FOR PROFIT 109

fore the summer rains have begun; at this period
everything should have a good mulch to carry it
through the usual dry spell.

To cultivate corn or any other row crop every
week or so just because the weather is dry is absurd;
so long as there is a good mulch it should be left alone,
for over-tillage will create dust which will only blow
away or plug the interstitial spaces and prevent ab-
sorption when a storm arises.

Another point on the tillage question that we
must consider is this: That although cultivation de-
velopes mineral plant food it burns up the humus, and
since these effects are about a stand-off, we as dry
farmers can afford to ignore all these functions of culti-
vating excepting the killing of weeds and the conserva-
tion of moisture.

The Function of Air in Soil.

We sometimes hear agriculturists say we must
cultivate to get air into the soil. Of course, this is
mere nonsense, a'relic of eastern farming; we culti-
vate to keep the air out of the soil, for there is always
more air than necessary to support bacterial life and
all chemical combinations which may take place with-
out trying to add more, but in the humid states it is
conceivable that the surface may become waterlogged
and air-tight, and this injurious condition may be
relieved by cultivation.

Air moves more freely through a crust than
through the mulch, but so long as the soil moisture is
attached to the granules and the interstitial spaces are
more or less clear, which is the usual condition of
dry farm soil, there is absolutely and always some air
movement and some evaporation, however slight, even
through the mulch. We put the lid on by cultivation,
but it is only a lid, it is not a cork in a bottle.

Lots of time and money may be saved in the
spring by plowing just as soon as the frost is out of

TIO PARSONS ON DRY FARMING

the ground, and even before this period sod may be
disced on the surface after a thaw to make it easier
plowing for the horses later on.

It is a money-making method to plow corn land
deep in the fall and cross list in the spring; but failing
this, March plowing for corn will increase the yield
over May plowing by several bushels.

When corn land is plowed early nearly all the
weeds, especially Russian thistles, can be extermi-
nated before planting.

The cheapest way to clean up weedy land is to
plant it for two years to fall rye; as soon as the crop
is off it should be plowed and clean fallowed until the
last of August, and then replanted about 40 pounds
to the acre.

Plan Your Work Ahead.

The farmer should draw up his program for the
year ahead of time so that he can foresee the work
for each week, and almost for each day in the week
and be prepared for it.

He can then alternate the crops so that all the
harvesting or plowing or cultivating will not be neces-
sary at one and the same time. For instance, as soon
as the frost is out of the fall plowed ground in March
he commences drilling in his spring grain; as soon
as that is done he goes to plowing for corn and
sorghum; while this land is fallowing and absorb-
ing moisture, he plows up an area for winter wheat;
by the time that is done he can clean weeds out
of the corn and cane land; then alfalfa may be
planted and after that, about May 15th or 2oth, the
corn can go in; by the time the corn is all in, the Kaffir
corn, sorghum or milo may be planted; when that is
done it is about time to harrow the corn, and after that
the cane. li there is any fall rye it can usually be
mowed for hay about this time, also the first cutting
of alfalfa, and after this will come the cultivation of

DRY FARMING FOR PROFIT III

the row crops and a discing of the summer-fallow for
winter wheat. The harvesting of the grain crops
follows closely, and perhaps a discing or plowing be-
hind the harvester. The season then closes with the
cutting of corn and sorghum and the planting of win-
ter wheat and rye.

It requires some careful thinking to plan the sea-
son’s campaign, plant the right amount of each crop
and arrange all these operations in their most eco-
nomic sequence, so that one man or two with their
teams, as the case may be, have their time fully occu-
pied without getting up in the middle of the night, and
without any dead time.

Adjuncts in Dry Farming.

Cattle and poultry are almost necessary adjuncts
to the payable dry farm. A dairy herd is always a
good investment if a creamery is handy, for the milk-
ing is done before breakfast and perhaps with a safe
old plug the children can deliver the cream on the way
to school.

A hundred chickens properly looked after will
use up all the waste and buy groceries for a fair sized
family, but if the accommodations are not ample, it
will pay much better to keep fifty. Broadly speaking,
any farmer can make chickens pay if he raises their
feed, but to buy feed and then make them pay requires
an expert, and chicken experts are about as rare as the
dry farmer who plows Io inches.

A side line for dry farmers who can keep going
16 hours a day is bees, for much of this work can be
done in the evening, but the rewards are not always
sure, for like fruit there are good years and bad years;
nevertheless there is money in it provided the neigh-
borhood is right; plenty of alfalfa and other bee
pasture.

Keeping enough hogs to use up the skim milk
is a good economy on any farm, and in places where

112 PARSONS ON DRY FARMING

there is a demand for young weanling pigs, there is
money in two or three good sows. The rule to follow
in this matter is: Get you feed first and then buy
your stock; don’t go ahead and stock up your
ranch until you know what you can raise, otherwise
you are almost sure to come out at the little end
of the horn,

It isn’t the stock that make the money, it is the
feed you put into them, and since you require the best
possible returns for your feed it never pays to feed or
raise poor stock.

Plant the Best Seed.

For the same reason always plant the best seed,
for there is nothing that will cut the profits so much
as putting time and labor into raising half crops from
poor strains, and it should be remembered in this con-
nection that the most expensive seeds are not always
the best. Seeds obtained from the farmer who raises
them are nearly always better and often germinate
better than those from the seed house.

Alfalfa is a most profitable crop in connection
with the dairy, it has to be planted only once; it grows
while you wait, and if the gophers are kept out seems
to last almost forever.

I hear one of our readers say: “I have tried al-
falfa and can’t make it go.” I know, but try it again;
ten acres of alfalfa will increase the valuation of your
farm by $1,000.

If you plow to inches deep and your soil is good
there is no question about getting a stand. It is a race
between the roots and the drouth; if the roots get
down ahead of the drouth the game is won; 10-inch
plowing handicaps the drouth and gives the race to
the roots.

The Dry Farm Orchard.

How about an orchard on the dry farm? If you

are in the midst of a dry, bare country where there

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DRY FARMING FOR PROFIT 113

is no fruit for miles around, you can make money on
the side by raising cherries.* People will flock in from
hundreds of miles, camp at your place and go home
loaded with cherries to put up for winter, and they
never seem to get enough. This is how it works on
my ranch, but it should be considered only as a side
issue, I believe, for it is not safe to gamble on the
climate—we may have four or five good years and then
three or four bad ones, or perhaps a hailstorm. The
cultivation of a 20-acre orchard will not cost in
labor much more than $60 a year, and any year after
the first six it may bring in $2,000 or $3,000 in one
season.

On my ranch we sell our dry raised cherries for 15
cents a gallon when they run about ten gallons to the
tree; when five or less we ask 20 cents, at which prices
the buyers do their own picking, and glad to have the
chance. |

The hardiest and best bearers are the Mont-
morency and Morello, they commence to bear the year
after planting, paying expenses almost from the start,
and at five or six years old yield a heavy profit when
the season is right.

Dry Farm Profits Greater Than Irrigated.

I believe the profits from the dry farm properly
conducted are greater than those of the irrigated farm,
for although the area has to be larger to raise the
same amount of crop, the expense account is so much
smaller, and so much less capital invested. The prin-
cipal economic factor is deep plowing, the difference
between 6-inch and 10-inch plowing will often double

*It should be remembered that Mr. Parsons’ recommenda-
tions as to varieties of fruit trees to plant on the dry farm apply
to conditions in eastern Colorado. Our Horticultural Societies do
not recommend cherries except for the southern part of South
Dakota. In their place the hardy plums may well be used as well
as the plum-sandcherry hybrids. In deciding on varieties of fruit
trees to plant in your localities consult the Fruit List of your
state horticultural society.

114 PARSONS ON DRY FARMING

the crop, and comparing the two side by side in the
same soil I find the following:

Deep Plowing Means Returns Every Year.

Although good fair crops are sometimes produced
in good years on 6-inch plowing, yet when dry years
come there is no comparison; the drouth cuts the
crops the first dry year on 6-inch land at least half;
on 10-inch land not more than 10%, while the second
dry year will burn out almost everything on the 6-inch
plowing, it will not cut the crops on the Io-inch more
than half. This is not guess work, but exactly what
happened in my neighborhood in Colorado in the two
consecutive dry years of Ig10 and IQII; precipitation
on my ranch 8 and 6 inches, respectively, our normal
being 14 to 15 inches.

CHAPTER XIII

Suggestions for Dry Farmers

AM often asked the question, “Under what condi-

] tions do you believe in dry plowing?” The trouble

in plowing ground dry is over aeration, too much
air, and not enough water; but when water comes in
it drives the air out, the clods are easily broken up
with a little discing; the ground settles; becomes
ready for planting.

There is nothing which will burn the crops more
quickly than too much air, and it is a perpetual battle
with nature for the dry farmer to accumulate enough
water to drive the air out.

The agriculturists who come here from the east
cherish two pet delusions: One is that capillarity will
save the crop in dry weather by bringing up water
from the subsoil as it does in the wet states; the other
is that the roots of our crops need air. They don’t
know until they have run a dry farm that the subsoil
is nearly always too dry for capillarity to act; neither
do they know that our soils in a natural dry state may
contain bulk for bulk 50% of air, and when dry-plowed
sometimes 70%, and many of them will say get air
into the soil, the roots of the plants need oxygen, and
I believe it was Campbell who said get the right
amount of air and water into your soil. This sounds
very wise, but it is quite the reverse, for the relative
amounts of air and water in the soil change every hour
of the day, and until we can control the weather we
cannot regulate the air and water; but we can modify
the ill effects of the air by not planting until the
ground is in condition.

Supposing we plow ground in the fall dry or half
dry, the winter is dry, the soil is in poor shape in

116 PARSONS ON DRY FARMING

the spring, what are we going to do about it? The
only thing to do is to disc it and harrow it alternately
until a fairly fine surface is secured and then plant it,
trusting to nature to do the rest.

Fall Plowing Usually Best.

The farmer will most likely say to himself, “TI
wish to goodness I had left this land and plowed it in
the spring.” But he will find that in a dry season if
he plows in the spring the ground will be just as ill-
conditioned as it was in the fall, and when he is
through fining it down he will discover that the fall
plowed land contains a little the most moisture.
Therefore there is little or nothing gained by waiting,
provided any kind of a fair job of plowing can be done;
for if the snows and rains come, it will mellow down;
if they do not, then the spring plowing will be just as
bad if not worse.

Early Spring Plowing.

Supposing it is impossible for some reason or
other to plow in the fall for spring crops, what is the
next best thing to do? Disc the land as thoroughly
as possible and then plow in the spring as soon as
the frost is out of the ground.

It is always an advantage to fallow the land be-
tween crops if only for a month or two. The field
plowed in the fall for corn to be listed in in the spring
will usually beat any land for yield which is plowed
after the winter, and the field plowed in March will,
in nine cases out of ten, be ahead of the field plowed
in May.

In raising a crop on sod the great trouble as usual
is air. The shallow plowers try to get around this by
rolling the sod flat and then harrowing the surface.
This is good as far as it goes, but there is a certain
objection to it, it doesn’t raise crops. When I see a
field of this kind it always puts me in mind of plant-
ing crops on a rag carpet.

SUGGESTIONS FOR DRY FARMERS 117

Deep Plowing Excludes Air.

If the sod is plowed deeply, from 8 to Io inches
or more, we get a larger proportion of soil to the
roots, the soil is on top, the grass and roots underneath.
The sod is pressed down and the surplus air excluded
by repeated discing and harrowing until the surface
is fine and well mulched. The disc cuts the sod and
forces it every way, jamming the little pieces into
every underground hole and corner until the seed bed
is fairly solid. While this work is progressing under-
ground, the surface is becoming finer and more imper-—
vious to air every minute.

A sod seed bed prepared in this manner often
raises the banner crop of the same piece of land. Air
spaces underground are always to be deprecated; but
their injurious effects are much reduced by a good
mulch.

Air in circulation is ten times as deadly as station-
ary air, because it carries all the moisture away with
it. So long as there is plenty of moisture in the soil
the air movement is up and out, for a cubic inch of
water makes 1700 cubic inches of steam at 100 centi-
grade, but even at the temperature of the soil the ex-
pansion is enormous.

The atmospheric pressure at sea level is between
14 and 15 pounds to the inch; in Dakota probably
about 12, for the higher we go the less atmosphere to
press down on the earth. High altitudes therefore
favor evaporation.

Winter Wheat Following Corn.

A farmer asks this question: “Is it safe and
advisable after taking off a corn crop to disc it up and
plant winter wheat?”

As a general rule, no; but at the same time if the
plowing for the corn has been Io inches deep, the culti-
vation kept up, and the season wet, it is quite possible
a good crop of winter wheat may be obtained. Every

118 PARSONS ON DRY FARMING

farmer ought to carry a soil auger to test his land,
then we could give a definite answer to this question.
If there are 5 inches of available moisture in the top
4 feet, over and above the hygroscopic coefficient, and
the precipitation holds to the average up to time of
maturity, a good crop of wheat could be raised.

If the indications are that the corn has used up
most of the moisture, it would be much better to plow
the field and winter-fallow it for spring planting. On
the other hand, if the farmer is bound to plant any-
thing, it had better be rye, for I have never known a
season in which fall planted rye did not make a good
crop of hay, and if the season is very favorable a crop
of grain even on corn stubble without plowing.

Planting on Stubble Not Advised.

I never advise planting on stubble without plow-
ing because it is a mighty bad habit to get into, and a
good crop in an exceptional year has been the undoing
of more than one farmer.

There is nothing so important in our new agri-
culture as to keep a level head and try things out as
we go. We are surrounded on one hand by faddists,
men who dream dreams, and sit in their offices dry
farming in their minds, and on the other by a set of
agriculturists who seem determined to run the dry
farms by the ancient and holy text books of the east.

A man came to me once who said he had been
reading some literature which said all you had to do
was to plow a few inches and pack the land and all
the moisture necessary would come up from the sub-
soil and nourish the crop. So he went to dry farming
with a packer and a disc. At the end of the season
by trailing a canvas behind the mower sickle he man-
aged to gather one load of oat hay off ten acres.

Discing Before Plowing.

A correspondent asks: “Which is the best, to

disc the surface of a field before plowing or to put in

SUGGESTIONS FOR DRY FARMERS 11g

the same amount of work in cultivating the crop
later on?”

It all depends; when the crop has been taken off,
and for some reason or other it is not plowed, it
should at all events be disced to hold the moisture
until it can be plowed. On the other hand, there is
no particular object in discing a piece of land today
and plowing it tomorrow as it would not increase the
yield to any appreciable extent when the land plows
in good tilth.

But supposing the land is dry or half dry? This
is the time when discing pays, because it creates a few
inches of loose dirt which when turned under helps
to fill up the air cavities between the clods.

Discing Before Breaking.

Does it pay to disc sod before plowing? Always,
the only possible exception being when you use a
Spalding deep tilling machine, but even then it makes
things easier for the horses; but when plowing with
ordinary walking plows it makes a difference of almost
one horse to the plow if properly and thoroughly done.
The time to disc sod as a preparation for the plow is
when the weather is too wet to do anything else.
Except in the worst kind of adobe, sod seldom sticks
to the disc no matter how wet it is, and the moister
the ground the more easily can the disc cut it. Disc-
ing sod not only helps the horses later on, but when
turned under helps to fill up the air spaces next to the
subsoil and makes a more compact seed bed.

After plowing if the sod is again disced on the
other side there will be little of it left to bother the
farmer, not much left to rot. The only disadvantage
connected with this method is as an old friend of mine
said: “‘When I used to plow the sod and leave it to
rot I always had lots of time to go fishing, but now
I have to stay home and cultivate crops.” No doubt
he had less fishing, but his family had more clothes.

120 PARSONS ON DRY FARMING

When a man asks, “Do you think I can succeed
at dry farming?” I always feel like saying, show me
what kind of a seed bed you can make out of sod and
T will tell you.

Crops Not Made on Seed Bed Alone.

As an objection to deep plowing it is often urged
that the top soil may be ruined by plowing up some-
thing deleterious. How can we tell if this is likely to
prove the case? The fact is no crop to amount to any
thing is ever made from the seed bed alone. The roots
always go into the subsoil unless dry weather or shal-
low plowing prevents them, and when this happens
there is no crop.

The average depth to which the roots of grain
plants go down is about 3 to 4 feet, so that probably
one-half or two-thirds of the crop is made from the
subsoil. Therefore, if any farmer has been raising
crops on his place the subsoil must be right or he
couldn’t raise them, and it would be perfectly safe to
go down a few inches farther with the plow.

The old idea that a crop was raised in the seed
bed like a geranium in a pot and that we should pack
the soil to draw the water up to their roots by capil-
larity from the subsoil is one of those ideas which we
can relegate back to the dark ages where it came from.
When the ground underneath the plow sole is tough
and refractory as it is apt to be after plowing for years
at one depth, it can be deep plowed and winter-fal-
lowed to reduce the lumps; but if humus is needed to
keep up the physical condition of the seed bed, it can
be secured by plowing under a green crop, or by hold-
ing it for winter wheat planting, after plowing under
a weed crop in June.

How Fast Does Water Escape?

I was asked the other day if I could give any infor-
mation as to how quickly the water dries out of the
soil. This, like so many other happenings, depends

SUGGESTIONS FOR DRY FARMERS 121

on conditions. An inch of water will go into some sod
only 2% inches and dry out in a little over a week,
for the top inch of sod will hold about 100% of water
until it evaporates into the atmosphere and is lost;
for this reason the unbroken prairie gathers no mois-
ture. When sod land is wet down to about 2 feet,
which is as deep as the water usually ever goes on
the prairie, there will sometimes be some left in the
bottom foot as late as July or August. On cultivated
fallow land it makes all the difference as to whether
the soil is clay or sandy loam. When the latter is
holding 3 feet of moisture to its full holding capacity,
say 15%, and another storm precipitates one-half an
inch; in sunny weather and June temperature the top
inch will dry out in about a week; by that time the free
water from the second and third inch will have passed
upwards and disappeared and all that soaked down-
wards below the second or third inch will have worked
down into the subsoil and become film water. The
evaporation can then go on only through the inter-
stitial or air spaces which is very slow, especially at
that depth.

Deep Plowing Conserves Moisture.

Then if a 3-inch mulch is made by cultivation the
loss by evaporation through the interstitial spaces will
be approximately as follows: In the top 6 inches the
percentage will drop from 2 to 3 points a month as
long as the weather continues dry. In the subsoil 2
or 3 feet below the surface under 12-inch plowing the
percentage dropped in five months dry weather from
15 to 14%, while on a neighboring farm under shallow
plowing it fell from 15% to 12%4%. During this
period no rain appeared which went in more than
an inch.

When it is raining on and off there is always more
water in the top 2 feet than anywhere else, but after
a long dry spell conditions are just the reverse, and I

Z22 PARSONS ON DRY FARMING

have known the seed bed to dry entirely out while the
dirt in the subsoil would ball in the hand. Thus we
perceive that the water escapes to some extent even
through a dry mulch but very slowly indeed by evap-
oration, as an old farmer friend of mine used to say
the ground steams. If we take a pane of glass and
place it on the dry mulch, putting dirt along the edges
to keep the outside air out and then put a piece of ice
on it the vapor coming out of the earth through the
interstitial spaces will condense in big beads on the
lower side of it. When conditions are right it will do
the same thing on a board which will be wet on the
underside after a cold night without any ice.

Distillation Instead of Capillarity.

Notwithstanding the fact that those following the
old agriculture would call this capillarity ; capillarity
has nothing to do with it, it is the result of distillation
—condensation, and is caused in the same manner and
is the same thing as dew. The proof is that water can-
not pass through dry earth without wetting it even
by capillary action; but water as vapor—in the aeri-
form state—can, and these results may be obtained
when the surface of the ground is dry and stays dry
throughout the experiment.

As explained above, the loss from the subsoil by
evaporation through the interstitial spaces is very
slight, but such as it is, it is much greater under shal-
low plowing than under deep, and the logical conclu-
sion in this matter can only be that the plowing acts
as a mulch to the subsoil.

CHAPTER XIV

Seed Selection and Corn Breeding

QUESTION the dry farmer often has to consider

is this: Will it pay him to pay extra high prices

for seed supposed to have been raised for a

year or two under dry conditions, or for seed of some
special variety of a hay, grain or forage?

Evolution teaches that it requires years and years
for plants and animals to adapt themselves to a new
environment by undergoing structural changes—
changes in their make-up of a constitutional character.

Functional Changes.

On the other hand functional changes may take
place in a comparatively short space of time; it all
Seems to depend on the potentialities hidden in the
plant, and we know so little of the fixed laws which
govern these eventualities that it is impossible to pre-
dict without trying it out, what may happen, or may
not happen to a plant or tree in a new environment.
By a functional change we mean a change in its
method or action, not a change in its structure or
make-up; for instance, supposing a plant on being
moved from a wet climate to a dry one were to develop
the faculty of turning its leaves edgewise to the sun
to lessen transpiration of moisture; this would be a
functional change. Thus if we raise a certain crop for
a number of years under dry conditions, it may gain
something in drouth resistance, or it may gain appre-
ciably nothing. I say appreciably nothing because it
is a law of evolution that nothing exists even for a
small space of time without its environment so to
speak leaving its mark; but this mark may be so in-
finitesimal in one or two seasons, as to be practically
indiscernible ; but the sum of all these marks after a

124 PARSONS ON DRY FARMING

number of years may amount to something in modify-

ing the nature or structure of the plant to enable it

to resist the encroachments of its new environment.
Drouth Resistance Evolved.

Therefore practically speaking, every year we
raise a crop on dry land, and save the seed for replant-
ing, we are forging a link in the chain of drouth resist-
ance, but whether this link is worth much we do not
always at once know, whether the chain is a long one
we cannot tell, but we do know that some impression
however slight is being made and that eventually
these impressions as a whole will show results.

For these reasons we believe that although there
may be no particular object in paying exhorbitant
prices for dry raised seed, when good irrigated seed
can be obtained; yet it will certainly be much safer
and pay better in the long run to purchase dry raised
seed and save it every year if only for the good it will
do ourselves, and the country at large to forge one or
two links in our chain of drouth resistance.

“Run Out” Seed.

We often hear farmers say, “Oh that seed has run
out in our neighborhood; it is no good any more.”

Now what is the trouble? There are usually two
good reasons for this. One is want of proper selec-
tion; the other, the necessity for crop rotation; the
land becomes crop sick; the grain deteriorates.

The longer any crop is grown in a given locality
the more it becomes adapted to its environment, and
the better it does, provided we give it a fair chance
with regard to the above two factors—selection and
rotation.

Why is selection such a potent force in seed rais-
ing? Because everything we raise was originally de-
rived from a wild prototype, and the tendency under
the slightest adverse condition is to revert. There-
fore in order to maintain a high standard of excellence,

SEED SELECTION; CORN BREEDING 125

we must provide not only the very best conditions of

seed bed and culture; but must select the very finest of

the stock for purposes of perpetuation or breeding.
Dry Farming Old.

Dry farming, although they perhaps do not call
it that, has been carried on for hundreds of years by
the natives of the dry districts of Asia, Europe and
Africa, and these are the places to look for drouth re-
sisting grains, grasses and legumes, for the essence
of adaptation is time, and for that reason we are much
more likely to import a drouth resisting type than to
evolve one.

Our macaroni wheats, the Turkey Red, the Mexi-
can Peanut, the White Australian corn and other types
were acquired in this manner.

As far as breeding is concerned I have dabbled
in crossing grains, fruits and flowers, but my principal
experience for over 25 years has been with corn; but
‘before going into details in these matters, it is well
to begin at the beginning and gain some insight into
the laws of nature which govern them.

How Plants are Fertilized.

The perpetuation of species in plant life depends
on sex, the commingling of the male and female ele-
ment, just as it does in the animal kingdom. The
majority of flowers and the blossoms of fruit trees are
bi-sexular; that is to say, both sexes are represented
in one blossom. In the center of the blossom we find
the pistil; at the top end of the pistil like a little flat
disc is the stigma; all around the stigma are the pollen
bearing anthers; the pollen drops from the anthers
onto the stigma; this fertilizing element from the
stigma is carried down the pistil by the sap into the
seed pod where the stem joins the blossom and lo the
pod begins to develop into a cherry or plum or apple
as the case may be. Some blossoms, however, like
those of the pumpkin are not bi-sexual but either male

126 PARSONS ON DRY FARMING

or female, and for fertilization purposes the pollen
must be carried by insects or wind or some other
agent from the male to the female blossom.

Sexes Individual.

In some trees and plants we find the sexes indi-
vidually apart, or as it is called dioecious; a male tree
which provides male blossoms but no fruit; a female
tree which has female blossoms but fruits only when
there is a male tree in the neighborhood to supply the
pollen brought to her blossoms by the insect carriers
or the wind.

Corn is fertilized by the pollen from the tassel fall-
ing on the silks, for there is a silk for every grain of
corn, and if the pollen does not fall on any particular
silk, the result will be a corresponding blank on the
cob. Corn is therefore largely self fertilized or inbred,
a characteristic which we will touch upon later.

Besides the laws of sex the other most important
ones involved in plant breeding are the unit quality or
characteristic law, the Mendel law of reversions, and
the law of variation, mutants or sports.

Burbank and De Vries both agree that in crossing
two different varieties or types, the qualities or char-
acteristics of either parent when transmitted to off-
spring are not, as a rule, merged or blended, but are
passed on as a whole or unit.

Thus if we cross yellow corn with white we do
not obtain a cream colored corn; but ears containing
some yellow and some white grains all on the same
cob. The same with earliness or lateness, for when
we breed an early corn with a late one, the first result
is that the corn is not medium, but each plant is either
early or late according to the parent which it takes
after.

Mendel’s Law.

The Mendel law which was in fact a law of rever-

sions, not entirely understood before he elucidated it

SEED SELECTION; CORN BREEDING 127

but yet practiced by animal breeders to some extent,
gives us the exact ratio in which reversions take place
under a condition of inbreeding. This law says: If
two varieties are crossed and the first generation al-
lowed to inbreed the resulting progeny will throw
back to the original type; three of the dominant type
to one of the other. Supposing, for instance, we cross
the White Australian with a common white corn of
weak potency; then the White Australian will be the
dominant type of the two. We take the seed from this
cross and plant it and raise the plants in such a man-
ner that they must inbreed from the pollen on their
own tassels, then save the seed and plant it the follow-
ing season; the result will be three plants of White
Australian to every one of the other.

The inbreeding has caused the mixed or crossed
corn to revert to the original types in a ratio of three
of the dominant type to one of the other. The moral
of this is that if we wish to establish a new type by
crossing, we must allow no inbreeding until seven or
eight generations have passed and the new variety
breeds true. Many a man has paid hundreds of dol-
lars for an ear of corn only to allow it to inbreed and
revert; whereas if he had purchased at the corn show
one ear of the same variety from each of two different
farmers and bred them together, the odds are that he
would have produced a finer corn than either one.
Many corn breeders understand this and do not mind
parting with their best ears for they know nothing
will come of it.

Law of Variations.

The law of variations or sports or as much as a
farmer needs to know about it is simply this: The rule
that pure-bred stock should breed true has its excep-
tions, and while it is true that these exceptions which
we call variations, mutants or sports, are somewhat
rare it is nevertheless a fact that they occur, and are

128 PARSONS ON DRY FARMING

of the greatest value to breeders in obtaining new
types.

Cross breeding seems to have the effect of stimu-
lating all the latent potentialities and dormant possi-
bilities in the creation of these sports, and in a field
of cross bred corn we may discover at any time valu-
able ears which seem to bear little relation to either
parent, and in points of excellence may transcend any-
thing in the field; but this is the point to fix in our
mind: It is possible that from these we may derive
an entirely new and valuable type.

Nearly all of Burbank’s new and wonderful crea-
tions have been obtained in this way, not by the old
inethod of selection alone, but by cross breeding, and
the selection of promising sports. In breeding from
sports we must not forget the law of reversions al-
ready explained; we may find a magnificent ear of corn
and lose the value of it entirely by allowing it to in-
breed and revert. To prevent this we must breed it
with the next best ear we can find in the patch, and
do the same for five or six years at least until the type
becomes more or less fixed, the idea being to prevent
the corn from becoming fertilized from the pollen off
its own tassels.

Preventing In-Breeding With Corn.

How is this done? By planting the two side by
side and detasseling the most valuable; this makes
the corn from the best ear the female parent, and the
next best ear which provides the pollen the male
parent. Whole rows may be planted side by side and
one of them detasseled, in fact all corn for seed should
be beheaded in this manner whether for breeding pur-
poses or not, for the reason that cross pollenization
produces stronger and more vigorous seed in anything
and everything than self-fertilization. When the tassel
is cut off a hill of corn we are absolutely sure that the
silks must then be fertilized from the tassels of a

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SEED SELECTION; CORN BREEDING 129

neighboring hill or not at all; but as a matter of fact
they always seem to catch the necessary pollen and if
only the one variety with which we wish to make the
cross is planted immediately adjoining, the results are
certain. Some breeders will declare that inbreeding
instead of causing reversions helps to fix the type.
The truth is, in pure-bred, blooded stock, inbreeding
does do this, but in cross-bred stock it causes reversions
by throwing back to the dominant type. ‘The first
year when making the cross we plant the two varieties
side by side one row of each and then detassel one
row. If one variety is 90-day corn and the other 100-
day corn, then the latter must be planted 10 days
ahead to insure their both arriving at maturity at the
same time.
Seed From Detasseled Rows.

The second year we collect the ears from the de-
tasseled row and in order to prevent inbreeding we
take only one grain from each cob and again plant two
rows, detasseling one row; either will do.

The third year any of the grain can be planted
from the best ears; but the rows intended for seed
should always be detasseled, at any rate for six years.

The yield is kept up by selecting the most vigor-
ous and by detasseling the seed row; it can often be
still further increased by making a fresh cross; it will
then be a compound cross.

A cross or a compound cross is not a hybrid; if
we could cross corn and wheat it would be a hybrid;
but hybrids, like the mule for instance, do not perpet-
uate their species except in very rare cases.

In these things and many other characteristics,
the vegetable kingdom and the animal kingdom are
analogous.

Unit Quality Law Valuable.

The unit quality law is of great value to breeders

inasmuch as it allows them to impart to one variety

130 PARSONS ON DRY FARMING

any particular characteristic of another. Supposing,
for instance, we have three different varieties of corn;
one possessing the earliness we desire, one has an extra
fine color, another has extreme hardiness and vigor,
and we wish to combine these characteristics in one
variety ; how do we set about it?

We cross the first two and, obtain a new strain,
then cross this with the third variety which results in
a compound cross, then we plant as large a number
as possible of the latter, selecting and propagating any
of these which combine in the highest degree the three
characteristics we demand.

We may find only one or two out of thousands
that fulfill these requirements, but they can always
be obtained by persistent efforts.

If it were not for this unit quality law, earliness
would merge with lateness, color with color, vigor
with weakness, and so on resulting in a negative mix-
ture neither one thing nor the other. Burbank con-
siders this law one of the most important in the
creation of new varieties.

Farmers Should Watch for “Sports.”

All farmers should be alive to the value of sports
or variants; it is from these that the great plant breed-
ers have derived so many new and wonderful varieties.
Anything promising in this line should be separated
from the common herd and bred with as little inbreed-
ing as possible until the type breeds true.

Flowers and fruits are crossed by bringing the
pollen from one blossom to the other, and then propa-
gating from the seed, selection always going hand in
hand with crossing. In order to cross small grain the
flowers have to be emasculated; the male and female
organs are so close together that self-fertilization will
take place unless the male element or pollen is re-
moved, when the pollen from the plant desired for the
cross can then be introduced. The accidental intru-

SEED SELECTION; CORN BREEDING 131

sion of foreign pollen not desired may be prevented
by tying blossoms in cheese cloth.
Suggestions for Corn Breeding.

In breeding new varieties of corn, I believe it best
in the west to select chiefly for earliness and quantity,
for after we have achieved these results, will be time
enough to take up breeding for beauty and fancy points.

The idea of not too large a cob is all very well,
but to breed it almost entirely out would be a distinct
disadvantage, for it fulfills a very useful purpose by
holding sufficient moisture to mature the grains in
the shock after the growing season is practically over.

Big ears, as every farmer knows, do not always
mean big yields, and the man who takes the prizes at
the fair may be raising only ten bushels to the acre.

The same thing may be done with wheat by
screening all the big kernels out of a large acreage
of poor grain. If we wish to stimulate the introduc-
tion of better methods, we should give prizes for yield,
not for specimens.

Planting on Dry Farm.

In the corn contests the greatest yields have been
obtained (over 200 bushels) by deep plowing. Every
inch counts, and in dry farming it is better never to
plant more than one in a hill. The distance apart
should be largely determined by the depth of plowing,
2 feet being none too much with a 7-inch seed bed, but
with 10-inch plowing, 18 inches will suffice, and with
I5- to 20-inch plowing an enormous yield was raised
by planting 1 foot apart. When corn commences to
run out, new blood is necessary, almost any kind of a
cross will produce larger ears and increase the yield,
but if a mongrel type is not desired, the same old
variety can be introduced from a neighboring farm
and allowed to mix naturally by planting together.

In testing ears for seed we must always remember
that one side of the ear may be good while the other

132 PARSONS ON DRY FARMING

side which has been leaning against the shock may
have been damaged by mildew, therefore one grain
from each ear is hardly sufficient unless we are very
careful to pick only the brightest and cleanest. Seed
corn should not be exposed to below zero weather ;
the trouble is the germ can absorb from the atmos-
phere as high as 20% of water and the expansion from
freezing is liable to rupture the cells and destroy its
germinating power even when the corn seems to the
farmer to be perfectly dry.

CHAPTER XV

Listing Corn on the Dry Farm

ORN is one of our standard dry farm crops.
Everyone raises corn or fodder, and some con-
sider it a safer crop than sorghum, and it is

some years; but since it is impossible to forecast the
weather the farmer seldom knows which will make
the best and most feed until he has it harvested.

In hot dry years the cane usually does the best;
but when the season is cool and backward and not
so dry, the corn fodder may come out ahead.

It is not good policy to try to raise corn and fodder
as one and the same crop. To mature grain the plants
must have plenty of room, and the ears should be left
on until the leaves are brown. To raise good fodder it
should be planted thickly and cut at the first sign of
browning up.

It was ascertained some years ago by experiment
that the farther apart each grain was planted in the
hill, for it was all hills in those days, the better the
yield; this, of course, eventually led to row planting,
and the old two-way check row system was abandoned
by the progressive growers.

The Corn Lister.

Then the lister came to the front, which will drop
the grains any distance apart the farmer may desire in
the bottom of a furrow, which it makes as it goes.

This implement was hailed with delight by the
surface farmers and those who hated to plow. “Here,”
they said, “we have a machine that plows and plants
at one and the same time, we can run over ten acres
a day.” So they did, and so many of them are doing
yet—planting corn in the hard ground, raising ten
bushels to the acre and telling everybody their state

134 PARSONS ON DRY FARMING

was never intended to raise corn in and never would
amount to anything for that purpose. The lister, how-
ever, properly used is the best implement known to
man for raising corn on the dry farm where depth is
the prime factor, for it plows a furrow, and then plants
the corn in the bottom of it. By this method the roots
of the corn are established at considerable depth close
to the subsoil, and down they go right into the
moisture, thus evading all danger of stunting by
drouth.

Another point, as soon as the corn shows up well
above the top of the furrow we take the cultivator and
running close to the corn, fill it up, thus completely
burying all the weeds in the corn row, and saving a
whole lot of hoeing.

When the furrows are filled up and the field
leveled by the cultivator the corn is set in the ground
5 or 6 inches deeper than by any other method now in
use. It has the advantage not only of being closer to
the moisture, but of possessing more strength and
stability to withstand flood, and wind, and a 3 or 4 or
even 5-inch mulch can be put on at almost any time
with the cultivator without danger of injury to the
roots.

Root Pruning in Surface Planting.

There is this to remember about corn: If you plant
it shallow and allow the roots to occupy the surface,
and then cultivate deep, you are very liable to ruin
the chances of a crop; but if on the other hand you give
it a good deep root system by listing, cultivate deep
and keep it up until the last minute, it will not
hurt the corn a particle, but by cutting off the incipi-
ent surface roots will cause it to go down deeper and
deeper.

If the corn, however, has been laid by, and you
should determine late in the season to cultivate in rye,
for instance, the rows between to be turned under the

LISTING CORN ON THE DRY FARM 135

next spring for fertilizer, it would be better to cut
shallower with the cultivator, for when corn is not
tilled it will always send out a mass of surface roots
and it would do more harm than good to destroy them
near maturing time when they are helping to make
the corn by catching moisture from light showers
which never wet the subsoil.
Lister Not to Substitute Plow.

The lister is not a plow, and was never made to
do a plow’s work, it is simply a variety of corn planter
and should be used as such.

To raise payable crops of corn, something that will
pay for the labor expended and something over, it is
necessary to plow from Io to 12 inches deep and list
the seed in across the plowing. It matters little, then,
how dry the weather is so long as moisture has been
conserved in the subsoil. It often takes three months
continuous drouth to dry out the top 6 inches; at plant-
ing time the corn when listed is already in this deep,
and three weeks later the roots will be down another
foot, at least 18 inches in all, and by the end of the
season, if we take the trouble to exhume some of these,
we will find some probably 6 to 8 feet long.

Spring or Fall Plowing.

Here comes a question: Should the plowing be
done in the spring or the fall?

It depends on the soil. Corn is not like oats and
wheat, it has a “rooted” objection to hard land. Some
soils settle and show much more sinkage at the end
of the winter than others, and these hard soils
often show better results when plowed early in the
spring. Light soft loams, however, are better plowed
in the fall.

It is a mistake to plow land at the last minute and
plant behind the harrow. Corn land which is not
plowed in the fall should be plowed as soon as the frost
is out of the ground in the spring, and the first weed

136 PARSONS ON DRY FARMING

crop can be disced out before planting, which gives
us a cleaner field.

The next best thing for putting in corn, when the
lister is not used, is the split wheel planter, the vacant
space in the center of the wheel leaving an unpacked
streak for the shoots to come through. When the
spring is cool and backward it is better not to plant
corn more than 2 inches deep. I have known it, how-
ever, to come through 8 inches of soil when the
weather was warm.

If the land is plowed in the fall or early in the
spring it needs no packing except in the seed row, and
not very much in that.

Distance Apart in Planting.

How far apart should the grains be dropped?

The idea is to space the kernels one by one in the
seed row according to the fertility of the soil, the depth
of plowing and the outlook for moisture.

When the moisture conditions are right an enor-
mous crop may be made by plowing 20 inches deep,
and planting a foot apart in the row; with Io and 12-
inch plowing, 18 inches apart; with 8 to 9g-inch plow-
ing, 2 feet apart. When the soil is poor the seed may
be planted one in a hill 36 inches apart by check row-
ing and cultivating both ways.

There is no harm in fertilizing corn in the row if
the owner so desires, and in some soils this will pay
for the fertilizer many times over. Finely ground
phosphate rock or bone meal with some nitrate is used
for this purpose, and so little is applied that there is
no permanent effect noticeable on the soil.

We have to be careful with nitrate in large quan-
tities in some soils, but ground phosphate rock which
is chiefly lime, if pure, is invaluable to any soil which
does not contain it in moderate quantities, and this is
probably the first element that our western farm soils
will become deficient in.

LISTING CORN ON THE DRY FARM 137

Importance of Strong Seed.

In planting corn by the single kernel method with
the lister or planter there is one point we have to be
very careful about, and that is to test the seed for
vigor so that every grain germinates. If the seed is
poor and purchased in bulk instead of in the ear, the
only way around this problem is to drop two grains
instead of one, and when they come up cut out the
extra ones. The thinning by hand might cost 50 cents
an acre or more in labor, but it would be worth it to
obtain a good stand.

The average yield of corn in the west is some-
thing like 13 bushels per acre. By the methods out-
lined in this article this may be increased to 40 or 50
bushels. This is no fairy tale but fact, and the writer
would be pleased to refer any skeptical reader to those
who have done it. Forty bushels per acre is no extra-
ordinary yield even at 6,000 feet altitude, and in this
connection I would say, stick to corn, don’t be afraid
of it, for history of this grain shows that it can be
adapted to almost any climate from the arctic circle to
the equator.

To obtain the best seed corn, detassel four or five
rows in the very best part of the field, leaving the tas-
sels on the alternate rows.

Variation in Kernels.

No two grains on any single ear ever produce
exactly alike, each grain is a distinct and separate
entity ; for instance, supposing the farmer is raising a
white corn, and when saving the seed he notices some-
yellow grains mixed in with the white, which some-
times happens when the wind brings pollen from an-
other field; all he will have to do to keep the strain
pure will be, not to discard the whole ear, but simply
to cut out the yellow grains.

The principal reasons for poor germination are
harvesting before the seed is matured, becoming moldy

138 PARSONS ON DRY FARMING

in the shock, and exposure to excessively low temper-
ature in winter.

The only objection ever urged against listing is
that where the ground is not level an early cloudburst
which is very unusual, except adjacent to the moun-
tains, may sometimes flood the furrows and smother
the young corn just as it is coming through; but this
is a contingency so remote as to be almost entirely
ignored by the majority of the corn raisers.

CHAPTER XVI

Winter Wheat on the Dry Farm

HE dry farmer who understands his business
never raises spring wheat where winter wheat
flourishes. The average for the United States

for 1911 is for winter wheat 14 bushels per acre; for
spring wheat 0.

The reasons for this are patent to everybody.
Winter wheat has plenty of time to root deeply, which
it does more than spring wheat; the field in which it
grows has all winter to catch snow and accumulate
moisture; when the growing season commences it is
already established, and can make its growth in the
cool weather of late spring, and early summer, before
spring wheat has hardly started.

Summer-Fallow.

Does it pay to fallow? I believe it does. I can
point to several gentlemen of my acquaintance who
raise their 40 and 45 bushels per acre by deep plowing
and fallowing.

Besides these, there are several large communities
of farmers who do nothing else, and make it pay. I
know of men in the San Joaquin Valley of California
who started in with little or nothing, twenty or thirty
years ago, and are now worth over $100,000 or more.
The product of this valley runs into the millions and the
precipitation is only about 12 inches, sometimes 6 or 8;
but the summer-fallowing which has been used in Cali-
fornia for 50 years and more, equalizes the moisture,
and allows the farmer to carry over a goodly percent-
age when the year happens to be a wet one. This
method is considered such a sure crop producer that
wheat lands without the possibility of any irrigation
whatever are selling from $100 to $200 an acre.

140 PARSONS ON DRY FARMING

This shows the true value of dry farm land with a
sparse precipitation when properly farmed, which
years ago was considered desert, and could be bought
for 25 cents an acre.

There is also a summer-fallow wheat belt where,
if I remember rightly, they told me their product was
over a million dollars annually, and that is in the Blue
Mountain district of eastern Oregon; the farmers there
are also doing well and building up the country. There
are others in eastern Washington and parts of
Montana.

It pays much better to raise a crop every other
year on the same piece of land which will run to 40 or
45 bushels than to raise one every year with double
the work of 15 or 20 bushels. The reader may think
my figures are too high, but if he will plow a good Io
inches, and summer-fallow, he will find out something
about good plowing and yields.

Deep vs. Shallow Plowing.

The International Institute of Agriculture reports
the averages for Belgium, England and Germany as 38,
33 and 30 bushels respectively. In the United States,
the Department of Agriculture says, 14. What is the
answer?

These countries plow from Io to 20 inches. Our
average all over America is 6 inches! Someone might
say that the factor of fertilization intervenes; it does
in this way: Our land is new and virgin soil hardly
needing anything in that line yet—theirs, some of it,
has been farmed for a thousand years.

Out of 38 bushels raised in Europe, about 8 would
go for fertilizer, leaving a clear 16 bushels over and
above our average yield.

Some of our college men are disposed to discour-
age wheat raising by our dry farmers, and they are
right in a way, for if they approve 5 and 6-inch plow-
ing, and this summer-tilling, as some call it—making

WINTER WHEAT ON THE DRY FARM 141

a dust mulch with a harrow—there is little or nothing
in it but a hand-to-mouth living; but that is not the
way to raise wheat.

Value of Disc in Dry Farming.

The best method of preparing the fallow is to plow
IO or I2 inches, and disc and cross-disc without
lapping.

Every farmer knows that the disc leaves two dis-
tinct ridges at its outside edges, as it moves along;
now when we cross disc, we have the cross ridges
which divide the whole field into checks, or squares,
which will hold water. This is the easiest way there
is to catch a cloudburst or quick rain; for these squares
will hold an inch of water if it comes in 20 minutes.

In experiments made by Professor Farrel, an inch
of rain went into summer tilled land less than 2 inches.
In land prepared with the disc, it will go in 5 or 6.

To scratch winter wheat, late in the season, into
corn stubble land, is also another favorite method of
gambling with nature; but failure by methods which
court failure is no argument whatever against raising
this crop by profitable methods. In fields which are
planted to wheat without rotation, fertility is as great
a problem as moisture.

Nitrogen Need Not Decrease.

Some years ago, the magazines almost started a
panic among the consumers by printing scare articles
about using up all the nitrogen in the soil, and figured
out how long it would take for us all to starve to
death for want of wheaten bread. These articles, al-
though written in some cases by eminent professors,
were great nonsense. It has been found by 70 years
of experimenting at Rothamsted, England, that when
land is fallowed, its nitrogen content increases steadily.
Besides fallowing, it may also easily be acquired by
plowing under green crops, and for these reasons nitro-
gen will not be the first element of fertility to be

142 PARSONS ON DRY FARMING

missed from our soils. From present indications, phos-
phoric acid will be the one, and when the demand be-
comes insistent enough to guarantee a reasonable
profit, the phosphate rock will be supplied from our
own mountains right at hand, which contain any quan-
tity of it.

In California, the practice of heading the wheat is
much to be commended; this leaves all the straw and
stubble on the ground to be plowed under or pastured
to stock, for whether it is plowed under as straw or
manure, it remains in the field, and is converted into
humus.

Treatment of Land Following Removal of Crop.

A question, however, with those who bind their
wheat and leave a 3 or 4-inch stubble is this: Should
the ground be disced behind the binder, should it be
plowed, or should it be left as it is?

In answering these questions we would prefer to
have a reliable forecast of the weather; in place of
this we can only bank on what it should be in order
to conform to the general average conditions of the
district in question. For instance, if the winter should
prove warm and dry, a good discing would save much
moisture; but should it prove windy and snowy, the
stubble by catching the drift will accumulate more
moisture than the discing could conserve. It should
also be noted that by carrying the field through the
winter in the stubble, the labor of one discing is saved ;
then if the straw is needed for feed it can be pastured
towards spring.

The cattle, of course, eat off the stubble, but return
it all to the field in the shape of manure, and the tramp-
ling and the dust plug up the cracks and prevent loss
of moisture almost as much as a mulch; but as soon
as they are off, the disc should be run over the field to
cut up the surface, bury the manure, and plant the
weed seeds left in the stubble. Then when the weeds

WINTER WHEAT ON THE DRY FARM 143

are up 8 or g inches high, is a good time to prepare the
summer-fallow by plowing everything under Io or 12
inches deep in May or June. The fertilizing effect of
the weeds in producing humus when plowed under will
more than offset that lost in discing the summer-fallow.

In raising winter wheat, the yield depends on the
depth of plowing, and as to whether the land was
fallowed or not.

Pays to Plow Deep.

Some say, of course, that it does not pay to plow
deep, but if these gentlemen were to plow a few acres
10 to 12 inches deep, they would soon understand that
by plowing shallow they are robbing themselves of
something like 10 or 15 dollars per acre.

Here is a case in point. Five or six years ago an
engine came through a neighborhood with which I am
familiar. One man hired the owner to plow him up
20 acres 5 to 6 inches deep at $2.50 per acre; another
hired the same outfit to plow 30 acres g to Io inches
deep at $4.50 an acre.

Both plowed in the spring and planted in Septem-
ber; both cultivated about enough in the interim to
keep the weeds out. The field plowed 10 inches deep
yielded 38 bushels to the acre; the one plowed 6 inches
went 23. The extra cost of the deep plowing was $2 an
acre, the extra yield 15 bushels worth go cents a bushel,
which equals $13.50; deducting the $2 an acre for the
extra depth plowed, this man made $11.50 an acre clear
profit over and above what the shallow plower made,
without doing a thing except to give his instructions
to the engine man.

Did it pay or did it not?

Wheat On Sod.

Now about raising wheat on sod? On thin land,
it is often the best crop for the first few years.

Anything can be raised on sod; it is simply the
same old axiom—more work, more returns. Do we

144 PARSONS ON DRY FARMING

want to put in $5 worth of work and take off $7; or
would we rather put in $10 worth and take off $20
or $25?

Everyone knows the first of these methods—the
sod is plowed 2 or 3 inches, rolled flat and a slanted
harrow run over it; the yield—well, the less said about
that the better.

The other method is to turn under the sod from 8
to 10 inches deep, thus saving all the humus, and disc
and harrow alternately until the surface is fine enough
to cultivate.

Lots of work! Yes, certainly, but the yield! It
may cost 14 bushels per acre in money to do this; but
the returns will be from 25 to 40, according to the
season, and there will be no sod to bother next year
as there always is when it is left on the surface to
dry out.

Variety to Sow.

What kind of wheat would you plant? Sometimes
we find a locally raised grain that is immensely popular
with the farmers and does well, but the wheat
most universally raised and the one to be found at
nearly all the exhibits from Canada to Colorado is
Turkey Red.

The great value of this wheat consists in the fact
that it is almost as hardy as winter rye; the grain is
elongated, and not so thick as some varieties; but
weighs up well and produces an enormous number of
heads to the plant. It could easily be crossed with
some variety of plump Russian spring wheat by plant-
ing the latter early in the season under glass, and if
the weight of the grains could be increased only 10%,
it would create quite a difference in the yield. The
result of the cross would naturally be some winter
wheat, and some spring wheat, but the latter could
easily be eliminated by planting in the fall, the survivor
being the winter wheat.

Ben Davis Orchard on the Farm of E. R. Parsons, Colorado.

WINTER WHEAT ON THE DRY FARM 145

Farmers often complain that when they use their
own seed for a number of years, the variety deterior-
ates—“runs out.”

There is a tendency always to revert back to the
wild prototype. The types of today have been created
by applying knowledge and effort to discover the laws
of evolution, and use them for our own benefit; in
this case, the principle involved is selection, and as
soon as we neglect it, reversion commences.

In applying selection to wheat, it is not only nec-
essary to choose large grains, but large heads also.
There are not many farmers who are willing to go to
all this trouble, although it would undoubtedly pay in
the long run. The large kernels for seed may be
selected out very easily by screening and this alone
would be a great help in keeping the crop up to
standard.

CHAPTER XVII

oo Years With Dry Farm Alfalfa

Y first experience with alfalfa was in the British
Colony of Natal, South Africa, in 1877. After
coming to Colorado I have raised it continu-

ously since 1886—in fact I would not dry farm with-
out it.

Corn fodder has its uses, but in a hard winter with
three or four stacks of alfalfa at his back, the small
farmer has little to fear; it doesn’t blow away and the
cattle eat it clean.

In Natal when I was there the weather was dry;
they claimed from 20 to 25 inches, but all I could find
after summing up for the season was about 15 inches.

Owing to horse sickness, which is a disease more
or less sporadic all the time, and supposed to arise
from inoculation by a certain kind of fly, everybody
used oxen for farm work, some plowing with two, some
with four and, of course, the plowing was poor.

There was only one man in the neighborhood who
had any alfalfa, and he had only a few rows of it which
he obtained by sowing in a seed bed and then plant-
ing out.

This piece of lucern, as they call it there, supported
a riding horse and two cows, cutting and feeding it
green. When one end of the patch was reached the
other was up high and ready to cut again. It looked
like a mighty good thing, and began to be the talk of
the neighborhood; but nobody could obtain a stand
of it.

Shallow Plowing Cause of Failure.

The trouble was evidently shallow plowing, so
securing the co-operation of one of the neighbors we
doubled up ox teams, and plowed a few acres 9 to 10

35 YEARS WITH DRY FARM ALFALFA 147

inches deep. We secured a good stand and it went
one-half a ton to the acre the first year; everybody is
raising it now.

When I started in on my dry ranch in Colorado I
knew just about what to do, and plowed accordingly,
some days not plowing more than half or a quarter of
an acre, especially when the adobe underneath was
tough; but then, what was the difference? I might
not have to plow again for twenty years.

As a general rule the alfalfa grew the best on
ground plowed in the fall, harrowed and disced in the
spring before planting.

Much of my alfalfa was broadcasted by hand and
harrowed in. This may seem rather a primitive
method in the days of seeders and press drills, but I
found that by doing this I was never bothered with a
crust ; the alfalfa always came through—another thing;
when you sow by hand and harrow in, some seed goes
in 3 inches, some 2, some 1, which gives you three
chances to make a stand, whichever way the rains
come.

For instance, in very wet weather that which is
down 3 inches and part of that down 2 inches may
never come through, but the other half of the seed at
or near the surface will all grow, and establish a good
stand provided as much as 15 pounds to the acre are
planted, for 7%4 pounds, if it all grows, is plenty to
cover the field. Again, if a fairly good rain comes fol-
lowed by a dry spell, then the seed at or near the sur-
face is liable to sprout and dry out; but that at 2 or 3
inches under the ground will stay and make a stand.

The Packing Craze.

I am convinced that alfalfa land should never be
packed all over after the seed is sown, and very lightly
if at all in the seed row. Packing is a craze with some
people, just as summer tilling is with others; but if
they would deduct just three-quarters of the packing

148 PARSONS ON DRY FARMING

and half of the summer tilling and add all this onto the
plowing the results would astonish them.

The best kind of packing is a few months fallow-
ing after plowing, and it costs nothing!

I always planted my alfalfa in the spring for al-
though many claim that late planting is the best, a
careful canvas of the situation will disclose that this
statement is not borne out by facts. The danger of
planting too early is frost, of planting too late, drouth
—a storm may come, wet down to the seed which will
sprout and dry out before it can take hold.

Hence, common sense says, plant it in the wettest
season of the year, which is often at the end of April
or beginning of May.

I have known alfalfa in the seed leaf to stand 10°
below freezing with 2 inches of snow on the ground,
but 2 to 4° of dry frost are sometimes fatal when the
sun rises clear.

We must always remember that altitude causes
susceptibility to injury by freezing on account of lack
of air pressure to counteract the expansive action of
frozen sap, which bursts the cells and thus breaks
down the structure, or as the farmer says, cooks it, and
the farmer is right, for cooking is almost the same
process, the breaking down of the cell structure by the
expansion of heat or steam, and a burn on a man is
very much the same thing as a frost bite; but let us
return to our subject.

Bromus With Alfalfa.

Amongst some alfalfa that I planted years ago,
came up some bromus inermus; as the gophers worked
in the soil and thinned out the stand the bromus spread
and filled up the vacant spaces. Thinking this was a
pretty good arrangement, the next time I planted
lucern I put in some bromus with it. It did not show
up the first year and very little of it could be seen in
the alfalfa the second year; but as the gophers com-

35 YEARS WITH DRY FARM ALFALFA 149

menced work, it again began to pre-empt the vacant
places, and this particular patch is now nearly all
bromus after about fifteen years.

Although on the dry farm where the precipitation
is less than 18 inches | would never under any con-
sideration plant a nurse crop with alfalfa, yet I believe
it perfectly safe to sow it with bromus. This grass is
not in any sense of the word a nurse crop, in fact, the
alfalfa is the nurse crop to the bromus, for it seldom
shows up much the first year, and if anything suffers
for lack of moisture it is not the alfalfa. I have seen
oats planted with alfalfa hundreds of times, but it al-
ways ended the same way, a crop of oats but no alfalfa ;
the same when wheat or rye were used. Under dry
farm conditions it seems futile to attempt to raise two
crops where there is hardly enough moisture for one.

Weeds in Alfalfa.

What about weeds? Well, weeds are another
drawback; but it is easier to raise alfalfa and weeds on
one patch than to raise alfalfa, oats, and weeds. Itisa
good idea to mow the young alfalfa about July or
August, weeds and all, sometimes this cutting is worth
raking, but usually not, and can be left on the ground
to dry up. If alfalfa can be held until high enough
to cut it is safe from drouth, the tops may dry but it
a pad again irom: the) Fgot as. S90 as the rains
appear.

Deep Plowing in Algiers.

The French delegate at one of the Dry Farming
Congresses told me that they had great trouble in
Algiers in obtaining a stand ; but eventually they made
out by plowing 20 inches deep. This is the main thing
the whole secret of obtaining a stand—if you can
plow deeply it is just as easy as rolling off a log. After
the alfalfa is established nothing seems to hurt it ex-
cept gophers. Those who irrigate, of course, are trou-
bled to some extent with the rot and winter-killing,

150 PARSONS ON DRY FARMING

for anything sappy will winter-kill, and this applies
also to dry farm alfalfa on bottoms where the roots go
to water. My alfalfa on the hillsides has always win-
tered perfectly in the driest years, but was sometimes
very late in coming out in the spring for want of
moisture.

These observations of mine it must be noted were
made in Colorado and it is quite possible they may
not apply everywhere; local conditions are so different.

_ Gophers and Black Cats.

The best antidote to gophers is a good hunting
strain of cats, and black ones are the best, for the
coyotes, as a rule, do not molest them; an old trapper
explained this to me by saying they took them for
skunks.

I never hesitate to plant alfalfa on sod. There is
a prejudice against this, but it comes from those who
plow it in ribbons 2 or 3 inches thick. If the sod is
broken 8 or 9 inches deep, disced on both sides (before
and after plowing) and thoroughly fined down by disc-
ing and harrowing alternately, it makes a magnificent
seed bed for alfalfa, and in thin sandy soil that blows
a much superior one to any old field which is full of
weeds and packs easily.

When the roots of young plants get down into
the cool moist dirt 10 or 12 inches below the surface
they are safe from drouth, and this can be secured in
about two months’ time if the conditions are made
right by deep plowing.

Land Men’s Opportunity.

There is no easier way for a land speculator to
make money than to hunt up dry lands on bottoms and
other places with water at 15, 20 or 30 feet, and plant
them to alfalfa. Corn, wheat and other crops may dry
out on such lands in dry years, but alfalfa will in a
few years get down to the permanently moist stratum
just above the water, and yield three immense crops

39 YEARS WITH DRY FARM ALFALFA 151

every year without irrigation. Where the water bed is
20 feet it may take three years to do this; where it is
30 feet, four or five years. The most vigorous plants
get down first, others follow the next season, and
eventually the whole field begins to grow, regardless
of the weather.

On the dry farm one of the principal functions of
alfalfa is to restore the soil. If any particular field
is getting thin, showing signs of depletion, manure
it a little and put it into alfalfa before it is too late. If
you have a sand bar with moisture at depth, manure it
also and do the same.

Once a piece of land is planted to alfalfa, you are
through with it, at any rate for the time being, and
many unsightly places may be made to yield hand-
somely with this crop. Some prefer to plant it in rows
in order to cultivate it; this is a good way to do; but
will the farmer give it any more cultivation than when
planted otherwise? Probably not, for all and any
alfalfa may be harrowed in the spring before sprouting
and once after each cutting, which makes four cultiva-
tions to the season.

On old established alfalfa with large crowns some
use the disc, but there is no doubt that splitting the
crown allows water and bacteria to invade the tuber,
favoring rot and other fungoid diseases, but not so
much in dry land alfalfa as with the irrigated variety.

What Variety to Sow.

Farmers often ask me what variety of alfalfa to
plant. Now to tell the truth I am altogether at sea
on this point. All the different experiment stations
seem to have their own pet variety; but we hear more
talk of the Grimm than any other kind. On my ranch
we planted Colorado irrigated seed; paid high prices
for Turkestan; planted dry raised seed from Mexico.
They all came up, they all did well, they all made hay,
they all looked alike to me.

152 PARSONS ON DRY FARMING

Does it pay to inoculate your land with the nitri-
fying bacteria? Probably it does in some cases, but
there is little if any seed west of the Missouri which
is not already infected, and the nodules seem to come
on the roots almost as soon as the alfalfa is planted;
but if they do not, a little of the top-soil from a neigh-
boring field will accomplish the desired result. The
farther we go east out of the lime soils the more neces-
sary it seems to inoculate the land.

This is explained by the hypothesis that in form-
ing nitrates or nitric acid solutions, the bacteria after a
while die in their own juice—too much acid—but when
there is lime in the soil it uses up this surplus acid by
combining with it and forming nitrate of calcium, and
the bacterial colonies continue to flourish. For these
reasons lime soils are to be preferred for alfalfa.

In these days of baby beef and balanced rations
the raiser of alfalfa may be apt to postpone the harvest-
ing of his crop just when the weather is most propi-
tious, in order that the plants may ripen up more,
acquiring perhaps an infinitesimal per cent more nitro-
gen to enhance its feed value; but should he be caught
in a heavy rain with his hay down, he may lose 20%
of its feeding value in one day.

It is more practical in every way to make hay while
the sun shines and not be led away by side issues.

CHAPTER XVIII

Amber Cane, Milo, Kaffir Corn, Broom Corn

LL of the above belonging to the sorghum family
are good drouth resisters, and adapted to the
semi-dry area, but possess certain characteris-

tics demanding a corresponding environment. For
snstance: They all require heat; milo and kaffir more
than cane; therefore, the best sorghum for hot days
and cool nights, high altitudes and the foothill country,
is the amber cane. This to be pure should be black-
seeded, the white-seeded being larger and later.

Down in the hot plains, milo is the favorite, the
grain being, as a rule, heavier than kaffir, it requires a
longer season than cane, but matures more grain.

The land for sorghum should be prepared the same
as for corn. The planting may be done with the ordi-
nary corn planter by having small hole plates made on
purpose, or by plugging up the holes with lead until
the right size is obtained for dropping the right amount
of seed.

Sowing usually begins on the plains about June
Ist, and may be continued until July, but for grain
should be in by June Ist.

Since sorghum seed is planted only about I inch
deep, it is necessary that the field be as smooth as
possible. It may be seeded deeper than this, however,
in warm friable soil. The best depth for planting any
seed must finally be decided by the farmer himself, for
he alone understands the exact soil and climatic con-
ditions in his own neighborhood. The general rule,
however, is—plant shallow when there is any danger of
rotting from cold weather, from too much crust or too
much moisture—plant deep when the conditions are
right for quick growth. The amount of seed per acre

154 PARSONS ON DRY FARMING

is usually about 5 to 8 pounds for grain, Io to 15 for
fodder, planted in rows and cultivated in the same way
as corn. It is a good crop on sod, having yielded on
the writer’s ranch as high as three tons dry feed to
the acre on new ground broken 8 inches deep.

Broom corn must be planted according to the
manner in which it grows on the soil in which it is
intended to raise it, for when planted too thinly it may
be too coarse, and when seeded too heavily it may prove
too fine for broom manufacture ; therefore, before going
heavily into the raising of this crop, the farmer is
advised to try it out. Broom corn has proved im-
mensely profitable where the conditions of growth,
market, and labor have been satisfactory.

Amber cane is a first rate cow feed for cream, and
by feeding it once a day in conjunction with alfalfa,
provides a fairly well balanced ration. After harvest-
ing the cane, the field should not be pastured until
frozen and dried brown. The green leaves at the foot
of the stalk left by the binder, freeze, ferment, and
develop a poisonous volatile acid which evaporates and
disappears during the process of drying.

Too much cane fed at the start will sometimes
surfeit cattle and put them off their feed; it should be
introduced gradually until they become accustomed to
it, when a full ration can be fed with impunity.

Sorghum will heat and mold very easily; it is
cured in small shocks tied tightly at the top to prevent
the rain from piercing the center.

CHAPTER AIX

Rye, Oats, Barley, Emmer, Speltz

YE “isa very wwaluable, dry farm, feed. ‘crop, it

R seldom if ever fails, and if harvested at the

right time makes a fine grade of hay. Fall rye

as a crop is as much superior to spring rye as winter
wheat is to spring wheat.

To raise rye for the grain which is usually a
profitable crop, the same methods of culture should be
used as for winter wheat.

Farmers complain that it never runs as high in
yield as wheat. The reason is that they ona give
the wheat better treatment.

On summer-fallowed land, fall rye will often go
so bushels to the acre; on land plowed in August or
September, 30 bushels is no unusual crop with deep
plowing.

For hay it may be disced in on the corn stubble
without plowing; but to do this and expect a payable
crop of grain is absurd.

Its value to the dry farmer consists in quantity
more than quality, but the feed value is not any
lower than that of timothy hay if cut at the proper
time. The best time to mow it for hay is about a week
after it heads out, then if stacked light and clean with-
out rain damage, every animal on the ranch will eat it
clean. By this method all the starch is saved in the
hay instead of in the dough, and another cutting may
be obtained in a favorable season, for the earlier it is
mowed the better chance for a second crop. While
the new settler is getting some of his land into alfalfa,
he can depend on rye for hay.

It is usually seeded at the rate of 40 to 45 pounds
per acre for hay and 30 pounds when grain is wanted;

156 PARSONS ON DRY FARMING

by trying to raise both at one and the same time the

grain is usually shriveled, and the hay tough and wiry,

which has given it a bad name with those who have

not discovered the proper methods of handling it.
Oats.

This crop is often a failure on the dry farm for the
reason that there exists a belief that it can be raised
without plowing.

The fact is, oats like flax and some other crops
prefer a solid seed bed, and many knowing this think
it is a waste of time to plow.

The trouble is, without good deep plowing it is
impossible to conserve moisture, for the plowing has
more to do with accumulation and conservation than
cultivating. There is only one way to secure profitable
crops of oats one year with another. This method 1s
to plow deep in the fall 10 or 12 inches at least, and
leave it all winter to pack; if it contains 2 or 3 feet of
moisture by spring it is safe to plant oats, otherwise
not, for if there is only a foot or so of moisture in the
ground, and the weather turns dry, it is impossible to
make a fair crop.

Seventy-five bushels to the acre may be easily
raised on 15 inches precipitation for the season, and
probably half that amount in a dry year by the above
method. The dry farmer is not advised to attempt to
raise oats on 5-inch plowing performed once only in
three or four years. A careful canvas of the situation
in a country where this is done shows one profitable
crop in every three years.

Barley.

The best drouth-resisting barley is the hulless
or beardless. It may be cut for hay or harvested for
grain. Horses do well on it but chickens prefer wheat.
It should be planted in April on fall plowed land.

There are many varieties of barley; their drouth-
resisting qualities are about the same as ordinary

RYE, OATS, BARLEY, EMMER, SPELTZ 157

wheat, but hardly equal to those of the hard Russian,
such as the Kubanka and others. Thirty-five pounds
to the acre is the amount of seed usually planted.

Emmer.

The best known variety of this grain is the black
winter emmer originated by Professor Buffum of
Worland, Wyoming.

The methods of culture are about the same as for
winter wheat. This crop has yielded as high as 60
bushels to the acre and it is said to be good feed for
stock, partaking of the nature of hard wheat.

Spelt. Speltz. Spelz.

The name of this grain is “spelt” in different ways,
but they all mean the same thing—emmer is the
proper name.

A farmer would say it was a cross between a
wheat and a barley, a botanist would probably call it
a variety of wheat.

Its feed value is good, for anything that likes it.
It is said to yield more heavily than barley, but for
some reason since being introduced into this country
has not become very popular with the farmers.

It is cultivated in the same manner as barley.

Cultivation of Small Grain.

This is usually done with the harrow until the
plants are about a foot high, and after that with the
spring tooth weeder, fully explained in the article on
wheat.

Seeding.

The usual amount of seed used per acre is from
30 to 40 pounds and it is found that the poorer the soil
the more seed is necessary. The depth is from 2 to 3
inches; deep in light soil, shallow in heavy soil.

CHAPTER XX

Dry Land Flax

HIS is a very profitable dry farm crop wherever
the conditions are right, and the seasons favor-
able. It is more suited to the cooler states

than the hot plains, and is found growing wild in the
foothills, but not very far south.

There are wild perennial varieties which come up
from the root every year like alfalfa, but the seed is
too small to be valuable. It is quite likely, however,
that a perennial variety may be evolved by crossing,
which will prove of value, and from which a crop may
be harvested every year without replanting. The wild
varieties do not seem to be afflicted with the blight or
wilt to the same extent as the types under cultivation.

Flax does best on a deep, well settled seed bed.
To plow deep in the spring and then plant immedi-
ately is wasted effort as far as flax is concerned.

The ground should be plowed deep in the fall or
at least disced at that time, and plowed early in the
spring, and thoroughly disced and harrowed alter-
nately until the bottom (lower half of the seed bed)
is quite solid.

Because flax prefers a compact seed bed is no
reason for shallow plowing. It is this style of surface
farming which accounts for so many ridiculously low
yields, for with proper tillage it may be made a heavy
yielding, profitable crop. It is a good drouth resister
where the rays of the sun are not too hot, which seem
to have a greater effect on it than scarcity of mois-
ture; for this reason it is better to drill it in north and
south rather than east and west. Flax will grow on any
ordinary sandy loam soil, and the right physical condi-
tion of the ground seems to be of more importance

DRY LAND FLAX 159

than high fertility. It is often said that it is hard on
the soil, but this idea is hardly borne out by facts,
except that by means of its root ramifications which
are exceedingly close, it uses up more moisture, more
soil solution than some other crops; at the same time
it will mature seed with less moisture actually in the
soil than any small grain crop.

Flax has its own diseases as every crop has; but
by disinfecting the seed with formaldehyde and rotat-
ing, they can be easily avoided. The principal of these
is blight or wilt, and it usually occurs after glaring hot
spells with an insufficiency of moisture. Whether the
spores of this disease gain an entrance through a
scalded portion of the stem or leaves or effect a lodg-
ment through the root is not as yet known; but it is
known that the infection remains in the ground, and
nothing will kill it out except planting another crop
upon which the fungi cannot thrive—starving them to
death.

The amount of seed planted to the acre is usually
about 25 to 30 pounds.

The only source of profit from flax at present is
the seed for oil and oil cake; but the time will come,
and it is to be hoped in the near future, when the fibre
also will be purchased for the manufacture of linen,
and there is no question but that a marketable grade
can be raised upon which a large industry could be
built up. Some of our empire builders should take
this matter up.

CHAPTER XXI

Potatoes on the Dry Farm

at all in others. As to what constitutes a

potato soil is an agricultural conundrum which
has never been solved. It is known, however, that
potash, and phosphorus are essential, for in every
potato belt a fair amount of these minerals is always
present in the soil.

Therefore, if the dry farmer happens to be in a
good potato belt, there is nothing to prevent him
from raising them provided he is willing to do the
work, but unless there is a goodly amount of moisture
in the ground, and the season looks favorable, he had
better plant some other crop which requires less
moisture.

The secret of raising a big crop is a deep, well
worked seed bed in the best of tilth, neither too loose
nor too compact. The texture must be finely grained
and even (homogeneous) throughout without lumps
or clods. Therefore the most friable soil on the farm,
if rich enough, should be chosen for this purpose.

Some large crops of potatoes have been made by
planting on summer-fallowed land, but if this is not
done the land should be plowed in the fall, and winter-
fallowed in the rough to catch the snow. In the
spring the field should, if possible, be cross plowed,
and harrowed and disced alternately until the surface
is fine and mellow. It is impossible to plow too deeply
for potatoes; in the island of Jersey they are now
plowing 20 inches deep, fertilizing with kelp (sea-
weed) and raising 600 bushels to the acre.

The potatoes should not be planted over 4 inches
deep, for they need the surface warmth, and will root

ae crop may be raised in some soils and not

Parson’s Farm.

R.

E

ilver Poplars,

Dry Farm Flower Bed and S

ee SSS ee
ple So SS SESE FF
See: Fees SS Se

POTATOES ON THE DRY FARM 161

and sprout with greater vigor than when planted
deeper.

The time of planting must depend on local con-
ditions, and like many other things must be tried out
by the farmer himself and his neighbors, some favor-
ing April planting, some May and some June.

The best results are obtained by planting a piece
of choice potato containing one eye in each hill, which
should be 2 feet apart in the row, with rows 3 feet apart.

If the weather turns dry the hills should be
thinned down to one sprout each; but with plenty of
moisture in the ground more may be left.

It should always be kept in mind that the success
of a potato crop depends on rich friable soil, deep
plowing, and constant cultivation. Therefore, as soon
as the sprouts appear the harrow should be started;
very few will be torn out by this implement if properly
slanted, but if necessary the teeth which strike the
row may be removed. When the plants are too high
for the harrow, the corn cultivator is used, and inter-
tillage may be profitably performed until after the
blossoming period, but the potatoes should not be
hilled up, as they are in the humid states.

Fairly level cultivation is the best, and if there are
2 or 3 feet of moisture in the soil when the crop is
planted the chances of obtaining a large crop are
excellent in a district where the soil is right.

In order to raise crops one year with another,
heavy manuring and rotation with some grain crop or
alfalfa should be practiced. In soil which is not over
rich, good crops may often be secured for a year or two
by planting on newly plowed sod. The sod should
be disced in wet weather and the surface thoroughly
disintegrated before plowing, which should be 8 or 9
inches deep or deeper if possible, and the field must
be worked up into a fine tilth by alternate discing and
harrowing before the potatoes are planted.

162 PARSONS ON DRY FARMING

The work should be done in the fall and some
moisture conserved before planting, for the chances of
a crop on spring plowing are very poor, unless there
happens to be an unusually heavy rainfall. Even
when the land is plowed in the fall another plowing
in the spring is very beneficial, but if this is not given,
a good deep discing will help the seed bed.

It is impossible to say how any particular potato
will do in any given neighborhood until the matter is
tested out; but in the central dry farming states the
following varieties are used by the successful growers
and have a good chance of doing well anywhere.
Early Rose, Petoskey, Early Ohio, Irish Cobbler,
Peachblow, and Early Six Weeks; besides these, of
course, are many varieties known locally.

The Early Six Weeks may be planted in states
of the latitude of Colorado, Kansas, etc., as early as
April roth and will often make potatoes for the family
by the middle of July.

The tubers of potatoes are subject to scab and the
foliage to blight, but these troubles may be almost
entirely prevented by disinfecting the seed and by
rotation.

Sometimes the crop seems to be helped by prun-
ing off some of the tops or the blossoms, but nothing
definite has resulted when this idea has been put to
the test.

By the methods outlined above a yield of 250
bushels to the acre has been obtained in a favorable
season.

CHAPTER XXII

Beans, Peanuts, Millet, Peas

OTH Mexican and Navy beans are good dry
farm crops, and will yield heavily on conserved
moisture. Fall plowed land worked over in the

spring is better than spring plowed; but if the latter is
used it should be plowed Io or 12 inches deep in
March, and disced and harrowed alternately until
thoroughly fine and mellow, the last working being
performed just before planting after all danger from
frost is over.

The Mexican bean is a little the best yielder as
a rule, but the Navy brings the most in the market.
Both of these are row crops and should be cultivated
by the same rules as corn. They must not be planted
near a prairie dog town, for these rodents, and also
rabbits, feed on the leaves.

Planted in rows 3 feet apart and a single plant
every 6 or 8 inches is the right method to secure a
good yield. A specially constructed plate is used in
the corn planter for this work, and may also be tried
for peanuts, although some claim that planting by
hand or with the hand planter is best for the latter.

Beans should be planted about 2 inches deep and
25 pounds will plant an acre.

One of the best methods of harvesting this crop
is to attach a canvas to the sickle-bar of the mower,
allowing it to trail, and hold the beans as they are cut
to prevent loss by shattering.

Peanuts may be raised in the hot plains country
of southern Colorado, New Mexico, and other states.
Peanuts and milo are found in the same districts, and
grow under the same climatic conditions. The
Spanish peanut (really a Mexican adaptation) is the

164 PARSONS ON DRY FARMING

best variety to grow and the most drouth-resistant.

It is difficult to harvest as in digging or lifting
the nuts often break off, and are left in the ground.
The problem, however, of harvesting is easily over-
come by pasturing to hogs and cattle; the former get
the nuts, the latter the tops. They are sometimes
lifted vine and all by loosening the rows with a plow
minus the moldboard.

In their proper environment they will mature in
go days. When the growth is good they may be
mowed for hay, the tops being almost an equivalent
for alfalfa, and sometimes running as high as three-
fourths of a ton to the acre.

Hogs turned into a peanut pasture should gain
at the rate of 1,000 pounds for every acre.

The growth of the peanut is retarded only by
long drouth, but as soon as moisture falls, fresh
sprouts are developed, and the plant takes on a new
lease of life, usually maturing a crop.

This characteristic places it in the ranks with the
sorghums and other great drouth resisters; it is in-
valuable in the warmer dry farming states.

Millet.

Millet makes a very rich hay which must be fed
sparingly. The German is the favorite variety. It isa
good catch crop when other crops have failed, and may
be planted as late as July 1st. It is not exactly a sure
crop, for it is easily injured by hail when first sprouting.

It may be cut and cured for hay just as the grain
is ripening. Chickens will eat millet, but not in
preference to wheat.

It should be seeded about 20 pounds to the acre,
and dragged in lightly with a slanted harrow, on a
fine smooth seed bed.

Peas.

The Canada pea and other field peas must not be

confused with the cow-pea, which is of the nature of

BEANS, PEANUTS, MILLET, PEAS 165

a bean and will not stand light frosts. The former
prefer cool climates, cannot grow in extreme heat, and
sun-burn easily on light colored soils; but are valuable
in the northern states, do well in late cool seasons, and
may be planted early.

The cow-pea is at home in the warmer or more
central dry farming states and may be planted from
May to July as it will mature under the right condi-
tions in about 80 days. All peas are deep-rooted and
do the best in deep plowed or subsoiled land. They
may be drilled in at the rate of 80 to 90 pounds to the
acre. The tops are good feed for stock, and they are
usually harvested by mowing and cocking in the field;
hogs or sheep being turned in to clean up.

The most profitable method, however, with crops
of this kind is to pasture them off on the ground, and
then plow them under in the shape of manure.

CHAPTER XXIII

Vines, Root Crops, Sugar Beets

there is often to be found an odd corner facing
north with good sandy soil, and some leaf
mold. This is just the place for vine crops.
Pumpkins and Squashes.

Pumpkins and squashes prefer some shade, and
for that reason are often planted with corn; but if
this is done on the dry farm, they should be put in
only where there are vacant hills. Thus when there
happens to be a poor stand of corn it may often to
advantage be filled up with vines of pumpkins and
squashes. When these crops are planted alone in the
field the land should be plowed very deeply and laid
off in lands, leaving a dead furrow every 8 feet. These
dead furrows should then be worked up and down
with the plow, and about half filled with the top soil
before being planted.

The seed should be dropped in hills about 5 or 6
feet apart. About 2 to 3 pounds of pumpkin seed will
plant an acre.

Mice, prairie dogs and gophers are very fond of
these seeds, and will get nearly all of them unless
treated with some ill flavored material.

Watermelons and Cucumbers.

Watermelons and cucumbers belong in the gar-
den, but may be raised in sandy loam by the above
method if the soil is rich enough.

Turnips.

The best root crops on the dry farm after potatoes
is turnips. Late planting sometime in July usually
gives the best results, and the strap leaf varieties seem

~* many dry farms, especially those on gulches,

VINES, ROOT CROPS, SUGAR BEETS 167

to be the best adapted to dry land conditions. The
turnip fly, which eats holes in the leaves, hatches out
in the early spring, but begins to disappear in June.

Land for this crop may be plowed early, and clean
fallowed until planting time; the surface should be
fine, and the seed dragged in or drilled about half an
inch deep. If the seed is good, 6 pounds to the acre
will be plenty.

When the stand is too thick it may be thinned
by harrowing. If desired this crop may be planted in
rows and cultivated.

Rutabagas, Carrots, Mangel Wurzels.

The culture of rutabagas is the same as that of
turnips. Carrots may be raised in the field but are
difficult to weed; they should be planted in rows about
2 feet apart, and cultivated with a one-horse garden
cultivator ; early planting is the best. Mangel Wurzels
for cattle belong to the beet tribe and are raised by the
same methods as sugar beets.

Sugar Beets.

Sugar beets may be profitable raised by dry farm-
ing methods and may be made to yield ten tons to the
acre in favorable years. No farmer, however, is
advised to go into this line of agriculture unless he is
prepared to do the work as outlined below.

The land should be rich and mellow, besides
being thoroughly prepared as is recommended for
potatoes. The beet needs a deep, friable, homogene-
ous seed bed. When the ground is plowed 4 or 5
inches the beet will be the same length; therefore, to
obtain a 10- or 12-inch beet, 10- or 12-inch plowing
must be done.

It is a waste of time and seed to plant beets in
dry ground, and although some pretty fair specimens
have been raised on the winter-fallow, the only safe
method which it is possible to recommend is the alter-
nate fallow system.

168 PARSONS ON DRY FARMING

By fallowing a field one year and planting it the
next, the weeds are nearly all killed out and half the
expense of raising beets (the hand weeding) is
avoided.

The unirrigated beet is not as large as the irri-
gated, but contains more sugar, and there is little
doubt but that it would bring more at the factory.
They should be planted in rows about 30 inches apart
and thinned down until they are a foot apart in the
row. Deep plowing and intensive cultivation make
the crop.

About 6 pounds of seed to the acre is usually
planted after danger from frost is over. The land, if
fallowed a whole season, should be disced as deeply as
possible and thoroughly pulverized before planting.
A second plowing in the spring not necessarily as deep
as the first is even better than a discing. For sowing,
the press drill is the best implement now in use.

Note.

Although the writer has given directions for the
raising of a variety of crops, he believes that the best
procedure for the beginner is to go slow, commencing
with standard dry farming crops; such as corn,
sorghum, rye, winter wheat and alfalfa—all good
drouth resisters, gradually working into other crops
as he finds it profitable or not, always remembering
that feed crops for stock need not necessarily fully
mature or attain the standard of excellence demanded
by buyers of grain, and that while some past masters
in the art of dry farming have raised everything under
the sun and made fortunes out of small grain, it is usu-
ally much safer, and, in a general way, more profitable
on account of transportation and market conditions to
convert the farm crops into such staple articles as
beef, mutton, pork, poultry, eggs, butter, etc., and
ship them in concentrated form.

CHAPTER XXIV

The Dry Farm Garden

HE correct principle in this domestic branch of
dry farming is: To provide moisture for the
rows of vegetables in the dry farm garden by

drainage from the adjoining soil surfaces. We all
know how easy it is even on the dry farm to raise flow-
ers, plants, creepers, etc., in little beds around the
house and under the drip from the roof; this drainage
from the roof provides precipitation from a larger area
than the plant could otherwise receive, hence it gets
more than its share—more than its share would be in
the field.

This is the principle we apply to the garden; for
a few feet of space more or less make little difference,
and more space means more moisture, especially when
we show how all the water which falls on this space
can be drained directly to the roots of the plants.

The land for the garden should be plowed as
deeply as possible in strips 5 feet wide which will leave
a dead-furrow every 5 feet, and a ridge or back-furrow

Q)) SD)
Plan of the Dry Farm Garden Showing How the Dead-Furrows

are Plowed Out to Give Root Depth at A and B, for the
Vegetable Rows.

between every two dead-furrows, in other words, alter-
nate hollows and ridges.

The rows of vegetables are, of course, in the hol-
lows and get the run-off or drainage from the ridges
which gives them about three times as much water as
the crops in the field receive.

170 PARSONS ON DRY FARMING

Before planting, however, the dead-furrows should
be given an extra plowing to allow plenty of depth for
rooting, and some leaf mold or corral humus mixed
in with the soil.

For the garden there is nothing like leaf mold if
you can get it, but failing that, the next best thing is
humus from some old cattle or sheep corral.

It will pay well to haul a few loads of leaf mold
and distribute it up and down the dead-furrows before
plowing under.

It may seem a good deal of work, but one good
fertilizing will last for several years and green peas,
fresh beans, cabbages, carrots, turnips, beets, aspara-
gus, etc., with nearly every meal are surely worth
while.

The site for the garden should be selected where
the soil is rich and deep; but where there is no choice,
near the house is always the handiest. Some enter-
prising folks. will often pack water to their garden, but
this should never be done early in the season because
it encourages the plants to root too near the surface,
and then when warm weather comes they can with
difficulty be prevented from wilting; therefore if plants
are watered at all, they should be watered only as a
last resort at or near maturing time. To water by
hand hills of melons, squashes and cucumbers, even
tomatoes, there is nothing handier than a quart can
with some holes in the bottom sunk in each hill. The
water is poured into the can and leaks slowly into the
eround and sub-irrigates the plant without any waste.

The garden should be kept well cultivated or hoed
and no crusts allowed to form, and if all these details
are properly attended to will prove a material addition
to the resources of the farm.

In planting in the row, plenty of space also is nec-
essary; a good rule being to give everything twice as
much room as usual.

THE DRY FARM GARDEN 171

Cabbage planted 2 feet apart in the row and the
rows 5 feet apart have 2x5=10 square feet to exploit
for moisture; with a precipitation of 12 inches, Io
square feet will receive 625 pounds of water; now we
can raise a very good cabbage on 300 pounds, and a
fine cauliflower on 400 pounds, so that if the precipita-
tion is conserved in the soil the year around we can
allow nearly half for waste by evaporation and then
raise a fine garden.

Asparagus and pie plant do particularly well with-
out irrigation, while peas, lettuce and radishes should
be planted as early as possible to avoid the heat.
Beans always do well, also melons, cucumbers and
squashes when deep rooted, otherwise they will wilt
easily and become stunted.

The lettuce bed should be shaded in summer with
a board or two. Strawberries should be planted 2 feet
apart in the row and no runners allowed.

Turnips should be planted late to avoid the little
hoppers which eat the leaves; ashes, however, will help
to keep them away, also on the radish bed.

Some of the best flowers are, holly-hocks, petunias,
portulaca, nasturtiums, phlox, and poppies. The best
climber is the Virginia Creeper, in the seed books it
is listed as Ampelopsis quinquefolia.

CHAPTER XXV
Dry Farm Horticulture

HERE is nothing easier in dry farming than
raising trees. They discovered this in Califor-
nia half a century ago and the dry farm fruit

product consisting of olives, walnuts, wine grapes,
prunes, peaches, apricots, etc., raised on less than 17
inches of precipitation without irrigation runs into
the millions.

Why are trees easy to grow? Because as I have
always pointed out, successful dry farming is a matter
of depth.

We can plant a seed 2 or 3 inches deep; but we
can plant a tree 2 feet deep in a subsoil 17% wet, con-
taining enough moisture when properly mulched to
carry the tree a whole season without a single drop
of rain. How much of this 17% moist soil is needed
to do this? Not less than 2 feet, more if possible.

How do we get this? We can make sure of it by
planning a year ahead, by plowing and fallowing until
the requisite moisture is secured.

Nature may provide it during the winter months
whether we fallow or not, and if she does so, it is quite
safe to plant trees in the spring.

Water Required By Apple Tree.

A 15-year-old apple tree, I find on my ranch, does
very well with about 60 tons of water, making several
boxes of good sized apples. How do we get this 60
tons of water for each tree?

We plant the trees 4o feet apart which gives each
tree 1,600 square feet; with a precipitation of 14 to I5
inches such as I farm on, you will find if you figure it
up that 60 tons of water approximately fall on this
square of 40x40.

DRY FARM HORTICULTURE 173

Cherries and plums will do with much less; the
allowance for them is 20x20; small fruits lox1o. Why
does a tree use so much water?

Because the soil solution carries only one part of
solid matter in several thousand of water and to secure
this mineral matter the tree takes up the solution,
transpires the water through the leaves into the atmos-
phere and hangs on to the mineral matter.

Loss From Transpiration.

How much of this water can a tree transpire in a
day? A 20-year apple tree during a warm summer’s
day may transpire from 15 to 30 gallons. How about
other vegetation? Everything does so more or less
according to their leaf structure. Does this transpira-
tion affect the climate? It certainly has a local effect;
the settled districts of the west show a higher atmos-
pheric humidity than they did years ago.

Will this increase the rainfall? We do not know;
the Meteorological Department has not existed long
enough to provide the adequate data.

We do know, however, that hygroscopic mois-
ture is just as valuable to the dry farmer as rain-
fall, for it cuts down the evaporation, which saves
moisture.

How to Plant Trees.

In planting trees 40 feet apart, we would prepare
the ground by plowing lands 4o feet wide, planting the
trees in the dead-furrow. This saves a whole lot of
digging, for if the plow gets down 8 or Io inches deep
the holes need be dug only about another 15 inches,
and about 2 feet wide. When planting 20 feet apart
the lands, of course, must be 20 feet wide and so on.
The best way is to plow and fallow during the spring
and summer months and dig the holes in the fall giving
them a chance to fill up with snow and slush.

This dead-furrow method is also a help to the
young trees because it leaves the ground dished

174 PARSONS ON DRY FARMING

towards them, throwing all the run-off right to their
roots.

In order to handle trees just right, which they
seldom do in the nurseries, it is necessary to under-
stand something about their anatomy. The most deli-
cate part of a tree is the root; this has no bark to pro-
tect it; it is designed to exist in a moist cool environ-
ment, heat and sunlight destroy it.

Damage Done by Poor Handling.

Ten minutes in the sun will reduce its vitality by
one-third, one hour will cause the tree to hang fire after
planting out, and not leaf out perhaps for months until
all damage is repaired; one day in the sun will destroy
almost any tree.

Buy from a nursery which has proved up, as per
testimony from the neighbors, not from one which
sells trees dead or alive or dying.

Trees should be packed in paper-lined boxes and
the roots kept moist; as soon as they arrive they
should be taken out and buried in moist soil up to the
branches in order to plump up and recuperate. They
should be well sprinkled and kept damp until needed
to plant; a week or two of this will not hurt them. In
taking them out to plant, the roots should be covered
with wet sacks. Here we come to the two most im-
portant rules in tree planting.

They are: Cut back three-fourths of the top, and
tamp the roots solid. Unless you make a good earth
connection between the tree and mother earth, you
might as well throw it away.

An Old Fallacy.

“Shall I put anything besides earth in the hole?”
you say. Not on your life. We know what grand-
father did: He put old bones, or steer’s heads or dead
cats and manure in the holes and had the finest trees
in the whole country side. This was all right for him
because he lived in a wet country; but we dare not do

DRY FARM HORTICULTURE 175

this. In the first place it is not necessary, and in the
second place this rubbish makes air spaces, and these
air spaces are deadly to have around the roots of a tree
when moisture is scarce. We want a solid firm contact
between the root and the fine, soft, moist earth, noth-
ing more and nothing less.

The orchard may be manured later on by discing
it in on the surface when necessary.

When the trees are big the leaves should be cul-
tivated under in the fall for humus and not be allowed
to blow off.

Any Good Land is Fruit Land.

We hear a lot of talk among real estate men
about fruit land; but the sum total of it is usually
that the land is good for fruit because they have
it to sell.

Any good land which will raise grain or corn will
raise fruit if the subsoil is right. Sandy soil is fit for
orchards only when it is deep and rich right through
to a good depth, but clay loam is almost always safe
to plant on unless it runs into joint clay or other barren
stuff at two or three feet.

There are many places in California where the top
soil was used up by planting it to small grain from
30 or 40 years, which is producing fine crops of grapes,
prunes, plums, peaches, etc., from the subsoil, which
happened to be composed of different strata of good
wash dirt.

As far as exposure is concerned some prefer an
east or south or southeast and some a north exposure,
and as to which is the best is usually determined by
the spring weather which is different every season.
In planting on river bottoms it is very necessary to
ascertain how deep it is to water, for fruit trees are
upland by nature and a water-logged condition of the
soil will kill them; for this reason I would not care to
plant them with water any closer than Io feet.

176 PARSONS ON DRY FARMING

Apples will stand more water than cherries or
plums, but too much favors winter-killing in any fruit
tree. As in all dry farming we must cultivate the
orchard with an eye to accumulation as well as con-
servation ; we must allow no run-off. I find in my own
orchard that enough cultivation to keep the weeds out,
namely about 12 times during the season, will conserve
about all the moisture that can be conserved.

Cultivation.

Ten or twelve cultivations will also keep all the
crusts broken and the surface perfectly loose. For
accumulation purposes the work should be as rough as
possible, about three inches deep and well furrowed.

A good plowing once a year especially in the fall
is recommended; cutting the surface roots does not
seem to injure or hurt the trees in any way. In Cali-
fornia all the orchards both dry and irrigated are
plowed at least once a year, usually over 8 inches deep.

In my orchard the trees were planted about 6
inches deeper than they were in the nursery, which
leaves plenty of room above the roots for either plow
or cultivator. When trees are planted on a side hill,
something more than ordinary cultivation is needed
to prevent run-off. This is accomplished with the disc,
and the reversible disc is the best; for, with this imple-
ment, the rows can be hollowed out to catch the water
or filled again whenever the owner desires. When
the disc is run once or twice in the same row it makes
what we might term a hollow terrace across the slope
which hold water perfectly. When the row between
trees becomes too deep it can be partially or entirely
filled by reversing the disc.

These rows which cross a slope should be run
as level as possible to discourage run-off, and the cul-
tivation when done both ways should be done across
last, so as to leave everything in shape to catch a
heavy rainfall.

"Opeiojog uuazysegq ‘Suosued "Y "Wy JO Wuey Aug UO Sdeu]1 }sND07

DRY FARM HORTICULTURE 177

When to Cultivate.

I am often asked if there is any object in cultivat-
ing when the mulch has not been crusted by rain since
the last cultivation. I do not believe there is, although
in some of the Pacific states where the humidity is
high and some distillation from the subsoil during the
cool nights, we find sometimes the mulch settling and
breaking to some extent without any rain.

There is no question whatever but that dry raised
trees properly attended to obtain all the water they
require under a precipitation of some 14 or I5 inches
and from my own observations on this point feel con-
fident I could raise upland trees on a precipitation of
8 inches.

Opportunity to Store Soil Water.

We have already shown that by giving our largest
_ trees, the apples, a square of 4o feet (planting them
40 feet apart each way) we are allowing them about
60 tons of water per annum when the precipitation is
about 15 inches; but the young apple tree does not
need, when first planted, more than a few hundred
pounds per annum—then what becomes of the other
59 tons and over? That part of it which is not evapor-
ated in transit goes into the ground and we conserve
it for future use; therefore we soon discover we are
gaining moisture at the rate of several feet a year, and
it is not uncommon to find that after the sixth year, we
have 10 to 15 feet which will render any tree absolutely
drouth proof for several seasons whether it rains or not.

It was the discovery of these facts that led me to
plant a commercial orchard in 1894, and as I have ex-
plained before, you may have 100 feet of dry subsoil
under your moisture, but it cannot steal it notwith-
standing all the nonsense they talk about capillarity.
As the trees get older they use more moisture, so it
is good philosophy to save all we can and plant noth-
ing between the rows to use it up, for when our apple

178 PARSONS ON DRY FARMING

trees arrive at the age of 15 to 20, the precipitation
about balances the transpiration and the trees are just
about enabled to hold their own and produce good
sized fruit.

Treatment of Old Orchards.

Now here comes a question. Supposing we find at
some future time that the trees have grown very large
and the fruit is becoming small as well as the leaves,
which are indications of not enough moisture, what
can we do about it? Wecan reduce the transpiration
by trimming back the trees, thinning out the branches,
or we could cut out every other tree. We can also
help the situation by fertilizing, making the soil solu-
tion stronger so that the tree can get along with less
water. As the trees increase in size they create large
snowdrifts in the orchard and after a blizzard it is
nothing unusual to imagine that all the snow on the
ranch has piled into it; this is a big help in moisture
accumulation.

In winter the trees must always be protected from
rabbits until they are 3 or 4 years old. We buy a bolt
of wire mosquito screen, 2 or 3 feet wide and cut strips
6\anches iby 2) feet or (by 3‘ teet im the) trees, are, tall
enough, then we roll these strips (on a table) round
a broom handle which gives them the right shape to
snap around the tree.

Use Varieties Adapted to Your Latitude.

What varieties of trees or fruit are the best to
plant? This is a question that must be decided locally
by the experience of those who have already raised
fruit in your particular locality and at your altitude;
whether they have done so by irrigation cuts no figure,
for irrigation is-rather a handicap to trees, especially in
the matter of winter-killing. There is one point, how-
ever, and this is, I believe it best always to choose
large fruiting, vigorous growing varieties. As far as
hardiness is concerned the dry farm orchard has the

DRY FARM HORTICULTURE 179

advantage. Thousands of irrigated trees are killed
every winter by ill advised watering. A warm spell
comes, the sap cells on the south side of the tree be-
come gorged with liquid, a storm comes down from the
north, a solid freeze; snap goes the bark.

Cause of Winter-Killing.

We cannot expect the sap cells of a tree to hold
frozen water any better than an iron pipe which will
burst every time; altitude increases the bursting power
of the frozen sap in the same way that it increases the
bursting power of the arterial pressure in man which
may cause his nose and ears to bleed at high altitudes ;
therefore we find that a tree which will stand 40 below
zero at the coast may winter-kill at 20 below at 4,000,
and at 10 below at 6,000 feet altitude.

It is well to bear this in mind when we want to
send back east or to the old country for some trees of
those fine apples we used to eat when we were boys.

Trees will winter in land almost dry which con-
tains only 2 or 3% above the hygroscopic equivalent.
I know, because I have done it for experiment. I have
also wintered trees in cellars with a little dry dirt
thrown over the roots.

My wife has wintered geraniums by cutting them
back, taking them out of the ground, tying them in
bunches and hanging them on a 2x4 in the cellar. It
is ali nonsense to say trees need ditch water in winter.

Drouth Does Not Kill Trees.

When the trees dry out after the winter it is not
for want of water; it is because the sap cells are rup-
tured; the protoplasm is dead, the sap cannot rise. It
is very difficult almost impossible for drouth to kill a
tree of any size because not only are the roots
away down in the subsoil, perhaps as far as
the top of the tree is above ground, but the whole
heart-wood of a tree is a reservoir for the sap cells to
draw upon in time of need. The sap circulates through

180 PARSONS ON DRY FARMING

the sap wood and cambium layers adjoining the bark,
making the whole circuit of the tree from root to leaves
and leaves back to root. The tree grows by successive
layers forming each year on the outside next the bark;
thus the outside layers are gradually covered up and
becoming inside wood, eventually heart-wood; as this
process goes on the inside layers gradually lose their
protoplasm and become virtually dead, taking no part
in the raising of the sap or the life of the tree; but these
empty wood cells of which the heart-wood is composed
are fine receptacles for surplus sap and during the wet
spring weather when there is a surplus of this material
the overflow finds its way into them and stays there
until needed. Thus we find that all trees are good
drouth resisters excepting, of course, bottom land trees
which have become adapted to their environment. The
same rules which apply to orchard trees also apply to
shade trees; there will be no trouble with them if
planted in rows and cultivated.

CHAPTER XXVI

Forestry in the Arid Regions

T is estimated that in a very few years our forests
will become depleted, our lumber supply almost
used up, unless some policy of conservation is in-

augurated which will save the day.

The Forestry Department are doing their best,
but what can planting every year a few acres of forest
trees amount to when thousands of square miles are
burned off every season?

How is this problem solved in other countries?

One of the greatest countries of the old world for
conservation of soil, trees, everything, is Germany.
Conservation is taught in the schools, everybody
understands it; the man who burns a forest is just as
much a criminal as the man who burns a village; the
man who cuts a sapling to make a 2x4, which in a few
years might grow into a hundred feet of lumber, is just
as much a robber as the man who robs a bank.

There they have laws which have popular senti-
ment at the back of them. Here we have laws which
are difficult to enforce because popular sentiment has
never been educated up to them.

Campaign of Education Necessary.

The only way we can change this is by a campaign
of education. If the forest fires can be prevented, the
rest is comparatively easy; but can we prevent them,
and then reforest the denuded areas?

It is a big contract, but what other countries have
done, we can do.

The forests belong to the nation; if they are of
value they should be conserved and not despoiled by
the lumbermen, the miner and by overstocking with
cattle.

182 PARSONS ON DRY FARMING

In some of the provinces of Austria and Germany,
a law exists that every man who cuts down a tree must
plant another, and many of the great lumber com-
panies own their own nurseries.

The question which concerns us, however, is this:
Have we as farmers any particular interest in the con-
servation of the national forests?

We certainly have, and for many reasons.
Trees help vegetation because they create a moist
atmosphere. ;

Transpiration of Trees.

A large Engelmann spruce, for instance, may
transpire from 300 to 500 gallons of water a day. An
ordinary sized tree from 50 to 100 gallons. In many
cases this water comes from great depths from which
nothing but the roots of a giant tree would ever raise
it; therefore we may justly consider a forest of trees as
an aggregation of pumps, pumping millions of gallons
of water into the atmosphere from the lower depths
of the soil. When we appreciate this fact, we do not
have to strain our imaginations very much to
perceive that a good sized forest may raise enough
water every twenty-four hours to supply a fair-sized
cloudburst.

Now we do not wish to take part in the dispute
as to whether vegetation causes more rainfall or not;
but it assuredly is a fact that this water falls some
time, somewhere; but supposing it were possible for it
_all to stay in the atmosphere, even then, nothing could
be better for the farmer.

It has been shown by Dr. Alway, Hilgard and
others that under damp atmospheric conditions crops
can live and grow in soil containing only 3 or 4% of
moisture, but under dry atmospheric conditions 6 or
7% is the limit. No man can doubt the fact that a
range of mountains covered with forests to the west
of us from which our winds blow is a moisture produc-

FORESTRY IN THE ARID REGIONS 183

ing area of incalculable value to the man who raises
crops.

Someone might remark, “This old state is pretty
dry anyway.” Maybe it is but I have seen others a
good deal drier, especially farther south where there
are no trees to the westward. Lakes, reservoirs, irri-
gating projects and agriculture in general all afford
moisture, and for this reason there is little doubt that
settling a country improves conditions.

Atmospheric Moisture Important.

Millions of tons of water which years ago ran off
into the gulches, from thence into the rivers and down
to the sea, are now caught in the deep plowed land
and transpired by the crops back into the atmosphere
again, creating produce during the process.

Years ago when I first came to Colorado, we
rarely saw any dew there, but of late years in my
neighborhood the dews have been so heavy as to seri-
ously interfere with the haying. It is open to argu-
ment as to whether all this moisture from different
sources really increases the rainfall. It would seem
that it ought to, that a local shower for instance, tak-
ing place where the humidity is high, would naturally
precipitate more moisture than where it is low; but it
could hardly affect the large cyclonic storms which at
times sweep the continent.

In order to arrive at anything conclusive on this
point it would be necessary to compare the records
for fifty or a hundred years, for meteorological condi-
tions are the most inconstant thing on earth and a Io
or 20-year average tells us little or nothing.

Railroads Engage in Forestry.

Foreseeing that the timber supply is likely to fall
short in the future, many of the railroad companies are
forestalling this condition by planting trees, especially
the Catalpa for ties. These plantations are not actually
in the dry farm country, but very near it, some of them

184 PARSONS ON DRY FARMING

doing well where the precipitation is not much over
twenty. It is expected that in course of time the trees
will become large enough to shade the ground, prevent
weed growth, catch plenty of snow and thus establish
forest conditions; take care of themselves in fact.

Can we do this in the dry country? Probably not
on much less precipitation than 20 or 25, for we have
to give the trees so much room on account of moisture
conditions that it will be hardly possible to obtain both
the shade and the moisture sufficient for the needs of
the tree. Nevertheless, I believe there are many waste
places which seem as if designed by nature for this
very thing. In the mountains among the rocks and
gravel where weeds and grass can hardly grow, trees
once established hold their own and grow right along;
the reason being that a tree root being perennial gains
something in size and reach every year, becoming
stronger and more efficient, a slow but sure process
which enables it to obtain everything in the way of
sustenance that can be obtained in such an environ-
ment, and in some cases to extend its roots into good
soil below the rocks entirely out of the reach of other
vegetation.

Waste Land Good For Trees.

Therefore, wherever we can find rocky gravelly
hills, there is a very good chance even on the plains
of establishing forest conditions with certain trees,
especially of the conifers, the varieties of which we
will give later on.

In a previous article I have already shown that
Wwe can accept it as an absolute fact that in proper soil
with the requisite plowing and cultivation we can grow
any upland trees which will not winter-kill anywhere
on our prairies where the winds are not too severe.
Reforesting the mountains with the varieties which
belong in that, their own natural environment, should
be a comparatively easy task.

FORESTRY IN THE ARID REGIONS _ 185

All dry farm work depends on the accumulation
and conservation of moisture, so must what we might
term dry forestry.

On the mountain slopes which are not too steep
we prefer the terrace method, which consists in run-
ning hollow terraces across the slope about 50 or 60
feet apart to catch the precipitation as it comes down
the mountain side. These terraces are made with
plows and road graders a few feet wide and hollow
toward the center to hold the water, and the trees
planted well towards the inside.

To conserve the moisture after it is caught, rocks,
boulders, rotten wood, pine needles, or in fact any foli-
age which happens to be handy can be used as a mulch
and no further attention is necessary. The advantage
of this method is obvious, if the terraces are say 60
or 70 feet apart, then each tree gets the drainage of 60
or 70 feet of slope; this is plenty to keep it going, and
once established the trees easily hold their own in their
natural environment.

Where the slopes are too steep for terracing, each
tree can be hand planted at the apex of a v-shaped
embankment which will catch more or less run-off ac-
cording to its size.

Forest Tree Seedlings.

In humid countries some areas where the condi-
tions are favorable are sometimes reforested by seed-
ing; but the seeds of conifers have many peculiarities
with regard to germination which are hard to over-
come even under nursery conditions, and this method
is therefore hardly feasible for general practice in the
arid zone.

Therefore we find ourselves limited to the planting
of either nursery trees or forest seedlings.

Which are the best?

The Germans as usual are the greatest adepts in
this line of work and find no difficulty in raising all

186 PARSONS ON DRY FARMING

our mountain evergreens from seed by the hundreds
of thousand.

In Erfurt, Germany, we can buy all we want of
our young forest trees, raised from seed, for a dollar
or twoa hundred. They send men to the Rocky Moun-
tains every year to gather these seeds which they ship
back to their nurseries and there propagate them.

Our eastern nurserymen buy the little trees about
5 inches long every spring by the thousand, claiming
that they can purchase them cheaper than they can
raise them.

I tried out a lot of these trees one year and found
they needed plenty of moisture and shade in order to
establish them, and were not at all suitable for moun-
tain work.

This leaves us nothing but the forest seedlings for
reforesting and this is the true solution of the problem
as far as the arid zone is concerned.

Here and there in the forest reservations we find
patches of thousands of young trees from 6 inches to
3 feet high running sometimes 5,000 to the acre; some
reservations have few; some have simply millions.

Years ago there was a man in Denver, we used to
call him Evergreen Dexter, who used to make a busi-
ness of planting these young trees in the gardens of the
city, and 90% of them lived.

Andrews of Boulder, is in this business today. I
had him sack me up some Yellow pine, Douglas fir and
Juniper and ship them to my ranch to plant on a rocky
hill which I terraced; they are all alive but one; but
I would say this, if men can make a business of this
work and find it profitable, then there is no question
but that it can also be done on a large scale by the
National Government. There is little trouble in trans-
planting evergreens by those who understand it; the
trick of doing it successfully consists in taking up a
small block of earth with the roots.

FORESTRY IN THE ARID REGIONS _ 187

Why Evergreens Often Die.

All the conifers contain a certain amount of resin
and turpentine, what the farmers call pitch; this pitch
acts as an anti-freezing mixture and accounts for the
extreme hardiness of these trees; but it also causes
the roots to be extremely sensitive when exposed to
the air, for the turpentine being very volatile evapor-
ates rapidly, leaving the resin in the roots congealed,
which interferes in some way with the life processes
of the tree; probably plugs up the ducts and prevents
circulation of the sap. It is bad for any tree to have
its roots exposed to the atmosphere but to the ever-
greens it means certain death.

Forest seedlings can be easily and safely trans-
planted with the double shovel tree planter ; this imple-
ment is made on the plan of the post hole digger. The
two shovels go into the ground on either side of the
seedling, then the handles are brought together and
locked and the little trees raised out of the ground—
root, dirt and all.

The holes may be prepared a thousand miles away,
the trees shipped in the transplanters by freight,
dropped in the holes at their final resting place and
the transplanters shipped back for another lot.

The transplanting of these trees has been done by
hundreds of men and can be done by anyone who is
careful; but if the dirt should by accident fall off the
roots the tree should be thrown away. The best sized
trees for transplanting are those from 6 inches to 2
feet. Any sized conifer, however, can be moved from
one place to another; it is simply a question of taking
enough dirt and roots with it, a tree 7 feet high re-
quiring nearly a ton.

Best Time to Transplant.

The best time of the year to transplant evergreens
is at the same time as any trees, before the new leaves
appear while the tree is dormant. Some have been suc-

188 PARSONS ON DRY FARMING

cessfully moved in the dead of winter with their roots
imbedded in a solid block of frozen dirt.

The Douglas fir, called also red spruce, and the
yellow pine are the easiest of the lumber trees to raise
and are magnificent drouth resisters, often wintering
in ground where there is no perceptible moisture.

For ornament there is nothing like the juniper,
sometimes called the white cedar; it is found even in
the deserts and holds its own with the sage brush in
the wastes of Oregon and Utah. Any of these and also
the silver spruce and Norway spruce can be raised on
any dry farm without irrigation, and when not obtain-
able from the mountains may be secured from almost
any nursery. On the dry farm, however, evergreens
should not be planted in adobe.

Drouth-Resistant Trees.

Among deciduous trees some great drouth resisters
are the honey locust, black locust, Russian olive, elm,
black walnut, catalpa and silver poplar. Any of these
can be raised easily with regular cultivation. The
silver poplar makes a very quickly growing windbreak
and may be planted pretty close for that purpose, even
6 or 8 feet apart, but plenty of room, at least 20 feet,
must be allowed between the rows. The same with the
locust which have some advantage over the other trees
in the fact that if for any reason they are killed back,
they nearly always sprout again from the root.

In choosing trees to plant, however, winter-killing
must always be considered as well as resistance to
drouth, for different localities differ somewhat in this
respect ; but the farmer can usually obtain this informa-
tion from the neighbors, the nurseries, the experiment
stations or even city parks in his state or vicinity.

Ask
The Dakota Farmer

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