The practice of dry-farming is of
itself more conducive to such accumulation of available plant food
than are the methods of humid agriculture.
Further, the annual yield of any crop under conditions of
dry-farming is smaller than under conditions of high rainfall. Less
fertility is, therefore, removed by each crop and a given amount of
available fertility is sufficient to produce a large number of crops
without showing signs of deficiency. The comparatively small annual
yield of dry-farm crops is emphasized in view of the common practice
of summer fallowing, which means that the land is cropped only every
other year or possibly two years out of three. Under such conditions
the yield in any one year is cut in two to give an annual yield.
The use of the header wherever possible in harvesting dry-farm grain
also aids materially in maintaining soil fertility. By means of the
header only the heads of the grain are clipped off: the stalks are
left standing. In the fall, usually, this stubble is plowed under
and gradually decays. In the earlier dry-farm days farmers feared
that under conditions of low rainfall, the stubble or straw plowed
under would not decay, but would leave the soil in a loose dry
condition unfavorable for the growth of plants.
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