Moreover, many of the drills have
attachments whereby the soil is pressed around the seed and the
topsoil afterwards stirred to prevent evaporation. This permits of a
much more rapid and complete germination. The drill, the advantages
of which were taught two hundred years ago by Jethro Tull, is one of
the most valuable implements of modern agriculture. On dry-farms it
is indispensable. The dry-farmer should make a careful study of the
drills on the market and choose such as comply with the principles
of the successful prosecution of dry-farming. Drill culture is the
only method of sowing that can be permitted if uniform success is
desired.
The care of the crop
Excepting the special treatment for soil-moisture conservation,
dry-farm crops should receive the treatment usually given crops
growing under humid conditions. The light rains that frequently fall
in autumn sometimes form a crust on the top of the soil, which
hinders the proper germination and growth of the fall-sown crop. It
may be necessary, therefore, for the farmer to go over the land in
the fall with a disk or more preferably with a corrugated roller.
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