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
Australia, larger than the continental United States, is vitally
interested in dry-farming, for one third of its vast area is under a
rainfall of less than ten inches, and another third is under a
rainfall of between ten and twenty inches. Two thirds of the area of
Australia, if reclaimed at all, must be reclaimed by dry-farming.
The realization of this condition has led several Australians to
visit the United States for the purpose of learning the methods
employed in dry-farming. The reports on dry-farming in America by
Surveyor-General Strawbridge and Senator J. H. McColl have done much
to initiate a vigorous propaganda in behalf of dry-farming in
Australia. Investigation has shown that occasional farmers are found
in Australia, as in America, who have discovered for themselves many
of the methods of dry-farming and have succeeded in producing crops
profitably. Undoubtedly, in time, Australia will be one of the great
dry-farming countries of the world.
Africa
Up to the present, South Africa only has taken an active interest in
the dry-farm movement, due to the enthusiastic labors of Dr. William
Macdonald of the Transvaal. The Transvaal has an average annual
precipitation of twenty-three inches, with a large district that
receives between thirteen and twenty inches. The rain comes in the
summer, making the conditions similar to those of the Great Plains.
The success of dry-farming has already been practically
demonstrated. The question before the Transvaal farmers is the
determination of the best application of water conserving methods
under the prevailing conditions. Under proper leadership the
Transvaal and other portions of Africa will probably join the ranks
of the larger dry-farming countries of the world.
Russia
More than one fourth of the whole of Russia is so dry as to be
reclaimable only by dry-farming. The arid area of southern European
Russia has a climate very much like that of the Great Plains.
Turkestan and middle Asiatic Russia have a climate more like that of
the Great Basin. In a great number of localities in both European
and Asiatic Russia dry-farming has been practiced for a number of
years. The methods employed have not been of the most refined kind,
due, possibly, to the condition of the people constituting the
farming class. The government is now becoming interested in the
matter and there is no doubt that dry-farming will also be practiced
on a very large scale in Russia.
Turkey
Turkey has also a large area of arid land and, due to American
assistance, experiments in dry-farming are being carried on in
various parts of the country. It is interesting to learn that the
experiments there, up to date, have been eminently successful and
that the prospects now are that modern dry-farming will soon be
conducted on a large scale in the Ottoman Empire.
Palestine
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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