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 first plowing was given the farm in May of 1887, and, with the
exception of 1902, the land was invariably plowed in the spring.
With fall plowing the yields would undoubtedly have been better. The
first sowing was made in the fall of 1887, and fall grain was grown
during the whole period of observation. The seed sown in the fall of
1887 came up well, but was winter-killed. This is ascribed by
Senator Barnes to the very dry winter, though it is probable that
the soil was not sufficiently well stored with moisture to carry the
crop through. The farm was plowed again in the spring of 1888, and
another crop sown in September of the same year. In the summer of
1889, 22-1/2 bushels of wheat were harvested to the acre. Encouraged
by this good crop Mr. Barnes allowed a volunteer crop to grow that
fall and the next summer harvested as a result 15-1/2 bushels of
wheat to the acre. The table shows that only one crop smaller than
this was harvested during the whole period of nineteen years,
namely, in 1903, when the same thing was done, and one crop was made
to follow another without an intervening fallow period. This
observation is an evidence in favor of clean summer fallowing. The
largest crop obtained, 28.9 bushels per acre in 1902, was gathered
in a year when the next to the lowest rainfall of the whole period
occurred, namely, 11.41 inches.
The precipitation varied during the nineteen years from 10.33 inches
to 18.46 inches. The variation in yield per acre was considerably
less than this, not counting the two crops that were grown
immediately after another crop. All in all, the unique record of the
Barnes dry-farm shows that through a period of nineteen years,
including dry and comparatively wet years, there was absolutely no
sign of failure, except in the first year, when probably the soil
had not been put in proper condition to support crops. In passing it
maybe mentioned that, according to the records furnished by Senator
Barnes, the total cost of operating the farm during the nineteen
years was $4887.69; the total income was $10,144.83. The difference,
$5257.14, is a very fair profit on the investment of $1800--the
original cost of the farm.
The Indian Head farm
An equally instructive record is furnished by the experimental farm
located at Indian Head in Saskatchewan, Canada, in the northern part
of the Great Plains area. According to Alway, the country is in
appearance very much like western Nebraska and Kansas; the climate
is distinctly arid, and the precipitation comes mainly in the spring
and summer. It is the only experimental dry-farm in the Great Plains
area with records that go back before the dry years of the early
'90's. In 1882 the soil of this farm was broken, and it was farmed
continuously until 1888, when it was made an experimental farm under
government supervision. The following table shows the yields
obtained from the year 1891, when the precipitation records were
first kept, to 1909:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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