Each of these many
districts was represented by one to ten or more representatives. The
only state to declare somewhat vigorously against it was from the
Great Plains area, and a warning voice was heard from the United
States Department of Agriculture. The recorded practical experience
of the farmers over the whole of the dry-farm territory of the
United States leads to the conviction that fallowing must he
accepted as a practice which resulted in successful dry-farming.
Further, the experimental leaders in the dry-farm movement, whether
working under private, state, or governmental direction, are, with
very few exceptions, strongly in favor of deep fall plowing and
clean summer fallowing as parts of the dry-farm system.
The chief reluctance to accept clean summer fallowing as a principle
of dry-farming appears chicfly among students of the Great Plains
area. Even there it is admitted by all that a wheat crop following a
fallow year is larger and better than one following wheat. There
seem, however, to be two serious reasons for objecting to it. First,
a fear that a clean summer fallow, practiced every second, third, or
fourth year, will cause a large diminution of the organic matter in
the soil, resulting finally in complete crop failure; and second, a
belief that a hoed crop, like corn or potatoes, exerts the same
beneficial effect.
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