Dry-Farming : A System of Agriculture for Countries under a Low RainfallWidtsoe, John Andreas
Science
Dry-Farming : A System of Agriculture for Countries under a Low Rainfall
Widtsoe, John Andreas
Dry farming
The broom corns are grown only for their brush, and are not
considered in dry-farming; the sorgas for forage and sirups, and are
especially adapted for irrigation or humid conditions, though they
are said to endure dry-farm conditions better than corn. The Kafirs
are dry-farm crops and are grown for grain and forage. This group
includes Red Kafir, White Kafir, Black-hulled White Kafir, and White
Milo, all of which are valuable for dry-farming. The Durras are
grown almost exclusively for seed and include Jerusalem corn, Brown
Durra, and Milo. The work of Ball has made Milo one of the most
important dry-farm crops. As improved, the crop is from four to four
and a half feet high, with mostly erect heads, carrying a large
quantity of seeds. Milo is already a staple crop in parts of Texas,
Oklahoma, Kansas, and New Mexico. It has further been shown to be
adapted to conditions in the Dakotas, Nebraska, Colorado, Arizona,
Utah, and Idaho. It will probably be found, in some varietal form,
valuable over the whole dry-farm territory where the altitude is not
too high and the average temperature not too low.
It has yielded an average of forty bushels of seed to the acre.
Lucern or alfalfa
Next to human intelligence and industry, alfalfa has probably been
the chief factor in the development of the irrigated West. It has
made possible a rational system of agriculture, with the live-stock
industry and the maintenance of soil fertility as the central
considerations. Alfalfa is now being recognized as a desirable crop
in humid as well as in irrigated sections, and it is probable that
alfalfa will soon become the chief hay crop of the United States.
Originally, lucern came from the hot dry countries of Asia, where it
supplied feed to the animals of the first historical peoples.
Moreover, its long; tap roots, penetrating sometimes forty or fifty
feet into the ground, suggest that lucern may make ready use of
deeply stored soil-moisture. On these considerations, alone, lucern
should prove itself a crop well suited for dry-farming. In fact, it
has been demonstrated that where conditions are favorable, lucern
may be made to yield profitable crops under a rainfall between
twelve and fifteen inches. Alfalfa prefers calcareous loamy soils;
sandy and heavy clay soils are not so well adapted for successful
alfalfa production. Under dry-farm conditions the utmost care must
be used to prevent too thick seeding. The vast majority of alfalfa
failures on dry-farms have resulted from an insufficient supply of
moisture for the thickly planted crop. The alfalfa field does not
attain its maturity until after the second year, and a crop which
looks just right the second year will probably be much too thick the
third and fourth years. From four to six pounds of seed per acre are
usually ample. Another main cause of failure is the common idea that
the lucern field needs little or no cultivation, when, in fact, the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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