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Widtsoe, John Andreas, 1872-1952

"Dry-Farming : a System of Agriculture for Countries under a Low Rainfall"

Few of the agricultural implements on the
market to-day have been made primarily for dry-farm conditions. The
best that the dry-farmer can do is to adapt the implements on the
market to his special needs. Possibly the best field of
investigation for the experiment stations and inventive minds in the
arid region is farm mechanics as applied to the special needs of
dry-farming.
Clearing and breaking
A large portion of the dry-farm territory of the United States is
covered with sagebrush and related plants. It is always a difficult
and usually an expensive problem to clear sagebrush land, for the
shrubs are frequently from two to six feet high, correspondingly
deep-rooted, with very tough wood. When the soil is dry, it is
extremely difficult to pull out sagebrush, and of necessity much of
the clearing must be done during the dry season. Numerous devices
have been suggested and tried for the purpose of clearing sagebrush
land. One of the oldest and also one of the most effective devices
is two parallel railroad rails connected with heavy iron chains and
used as a drag over the sagebrush land.


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