Prev | Current Page 366 | Next

Widtsoe, John Andreas, 1872-1952

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

The reports of the harvest
in July of 1910 showed that fully 85 per cent of an average crop was
obtained in spite of the protracted drouth wherever the soil came
into the spring well stored with moisture, and in many instances
full crops were obtained.
Over the whole of the dry-farm territory of the United States
similar conditions of drouth occurred. After the harvest, however,
every state reported that the crops were well up to the average
wherever correct methods of culture had been employed.
These well-authenticated records from true semi-arid districts,
covering the two chief types of winter and summer precipitation,
prove that the year of drouth, or the driest year in a twenty-year
period, does not disturb agricultural conditions seriously in
localities where the average annual precipitation is not too low,
and where proper cultural methods arc followed. That dry-farming is
a system of agricultural practice which requires the application of
high skill and intelligence is admitted; that it is precarious is
denied. The year of drouth is ordinarily the year in which the man
failed to do properly his share of the work.


Pages:
354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366 367 368 369 370 371 372 373 374 375 376 377 378