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
Non-leguminous crops may also be plowed under for the purpose of
adding organic matter and humus to the soil, though this has little
advantage over the present method of heading the grain and plowing
under the high stubble. The header system should be generally
adopted on wheat dry-farms. On farms where corn is the chief crop,
perhaps more importance needs to be given to the supply of organic
matter and humus than on wheat farms. The occasional plowing under
of leguminous crops would he the most satisfactory method. The
persistent application of the proper cultural methods of dry-farming
will set free the most important plant-foods, and on well-cultivated
farms nitrogen is the only element likely to be absent in serious
amounts.
The rotation of crops on dry-farms is usually advocated in districts
like the Great Plains area, where the annual rainfall is over
fifteen inches and the major part of the precipitation comes in
spring and summer. The various rotations ordinarily include one or
more crops of small grains, a hoed crop like corn or potatoes, a
leguminous crop, and sometimes a fallow year. The leguminous crop is
grown to secure a fresh supply of nitrogen; the hoed crop, to enable
the air and sunshine to act thoroughly on the soil grains and to
liberate plant-food, such as potash and phosphoric acid; and the
grain crops to take up plant-food not reached by the root systems of
the other plants. The subject of proper rotation of crops has always
been a difficult one, and very little information exists on it as
practiced on dry-farms. Chilcott has done considerable work on
rotations in the Great Plains district, hut he frankly admits that
many years of trial will he necessary for the elucidation of
trustworthy principles. Some of the best rotations found by Chilcott
up to the present are:--
Corn--Wheat--Oats
Barley--Oats--Corn
Fallow--Wheat--Oats
Rosen states that rotation is very commonly practiced in the dry
sections of southern Russia, usually including an occasional Summer
fallow. As a type of an eight-year rotation practiced at the Poltava
Station, the following is given: (1) Summer tilled and manured; (2)
winter wheat; (3) hoed crop; (4) spring wheat; (5) summer fallow;
(6) winter rye; (7) buckwheat or an annual legume; (8) oats. This
rotation, it may be observed, includes the grain crop, hoed crop,
legume, and fallow every four years.
As has been stated elsewhere, any rotation in dry-farming which does
not include the summer fallow at least every third or fourth year is
likely to be dangerous In years of deficient rainfall.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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