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
Shaw suggests that sanfoin, long famous for its service to European
agriculture, may be found to be a profitable dry-farm crop, and that
sand vetch promises to become an excellent dry-farm crop. It is very
likely, however, that many of the leguminous crops which have been
developed under conditions of abundant rainfall will be valueless on
dry-farm lands. Every year will furnish new and more complete
information on this subject. Leguminous plants will surely become
important members of the association of dry-farm crops.
Trees and shrubs
So far, trees cannot be said to be dry-farm crops, though facts are
on record that indicate that by the application of correct dry-farm
principles trees may be made to grow and yield profitably on
dry-farm lands. Of course, it is a well-known fact that native trees
of various kinds are occasionally found growing on the deserts,
where the rainfall is very light and the soil has been given no
care. Examples of such vegetation are the native cedars found
throughout the Great Basin region and the mesquite tree in Arizona
and the Southwest. Few farmers in the arid region have as yet
undertaken tree culture without the aid of irrigation.
At least one peach orchard is known in Utah which grows under a
rainfall of about fifteen inches without irrigation and produces
regularly a small crop of most delicious fruit. Parsons describes
his Colorado dry-farm orchard in which, under a rainfall of almost
fourteen inches, he grows, with great profit, cherries, plums, and
apples. A number of prospering young orchards are growing without
irrigation in the Great Plains area. Mason discovered a few years
ago two olive orchards in Arizona and the Colorado desert which,
planted about fourteen years previously, were thriving under an
annual rainfall of eight and a half and four and a half inches,
respectively. These olive orchards had been set out under canals
which later failed. Such attested facts lead to the thought that
trees may yet take their place as dry-farm crops. This hope is
strengthened when it is recalled that the great nations of
antiquity, living in countries of low rainfall, grew profitably and
without irrigation many valuable trees, some of which are still
cultivated in those countries. The olive industry, for example, is
even now being successfully developed by modern methods in Asiatic
and African sections, where the average annual rainfall is under ten
inches. Since 1881, under French management, the dry-farm olive
trees around Tunis have increased from 45,000 to 400,000
individuals. Mason and also Aaronsohn suggest as trees that do well
in the arid parts of the old world the so-called "Chinese date" or
JuJube tree, the sycamore fig, and the Carob tree, which yields the
"St. John's Bread" so dear to childhood.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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