The nonpartisan leader. [volume], March 15, 1920, Image 5

About The nonpartisan leader. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1915-1921

Image provided by: State Historical Society of North Dakota

                
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The following article, the fourth of the Leader's series on
farming under drouth conditions, .gives scientific reasons
for Seager Wheeler's belief that preserving moisture saves
fertility as brought out in the article of February 28. R. A.
Haste, the writer of the present article, is editor of Camp
bell's Scientific Farmer, a magazine published in the in
terests of dry farming at Mossmain, Mont.
BY R. A. HASTE
HAS been estimated that one-half of
the land area of the earth is classed as
arid or semi-arid, which means that
the annual precipitation ranges from
1 to 15 inches. Although the soils in
this vast area are rich in potential
plant food, agriculture under natural conditions is
limited and uncertain. Moisture is the limiting
factor of plant life.
There are but two ways of redeeming the deserts
and the semi-arid plains. One is by diverting the
streams and impounding the flood waters by irri
gating systems and turning them onto the desert
the other is using the soil itself as a reservoir to
hold the rainfall for the use of the crop. The lat
ter method is called dry farming and can be prac
ticed successfully only when the average annual
precipitation exceeds 10
inches.
When it was demonstrated
that by maintaining by care
ful cultivation a surface
mulch of granulated soil par
ticles the moisture in the soil
could be held ready for the
use of crops for an indefinite
period, thus holding the pre
cipitation of one season to
add to the next yatir's supply.
the tillable area of the earth
was doubled.
In a previous article I dis
cussed briefly the advantages
of summer tillage (clean sum
mer fallow) as a means of
storing two years' moisture
for the use of one year's crop
in the semi-arid regions
where the annual precipita
tion is uncertain but averages
from 10 to 16 inches. To get
results the fallow field must
be kept clear of weeds and a
soil mulch maintained to pre
vent the evaporation of mois
ture from the surface.
STORED WATER
ADDS STRENGTH
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After each rain sufficient
to dissolve this mulch, and
when dry to form a crust, the
field must be gone over with
a harrow or some other im
plement that will restore the
mulch and bottle up the en
trapped moisture. The water
thus conserved is held by capillary force and will
remain as long as the mulch is maintained—the
finer the soil the greater the water-holding capac
ity, providing it contains a supply of humus.
The results of summer fallow are familiar to the
average farmer working under dry land conditions.
He has found that storing two years' moisture is an
insurance against crop failure. When he strikes a
very dry season he is sure of a crop it may be
small, but it is Seldom a failure. In a normal sea
son it is usually double that on land continuously it up
cropped. The practice of alternate cropping takes
the gamble out of the game of dry farming.
All this is more or less familiar to the farmers
of our western plains. They know how to handle
their summer fallow, how to maintain the mulch,
how to hold the precious moisture for the next
year's crop. But few of them know why one pound
of moisture stored in the soil last summer is worth
as much to the growing crop as two pounds of
fresh rain that falls this year. In this fact lies the
great importance of summer tillage. Let us get at
the scientific facts:
The difference between plants and animals is
chiefly one of locomotion in other respects they are
very much alike. Animals eat and drink to live, so
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Why Summer Tillage Adds Fertility
Stored Water Forms Strong Solutions for Plant Food—-All Plants Take Food
as Liquid—Dry Farming Needs Over Ten Inches of Rain
do plants but plants take all their food in a liquid
form. The leaves of the plant are its digestive
organs where the raw material is manufactured
into tissue-building material and the refuse given
off into the air.
As the roots can take up plant food only in solu
tion, water becomes the. vital element in plant
growth. Moisture is needed, not only to dissolve
the plant food in the soil, but to carry this crude
material up through the stems and branches to the
leaves to be transformed by the sunlight.
The water that the plant takes from the soil is
both food and drink. If there is a lack of plant
food in the soil that is soluble in water there will
be little growth. But in trying to get enough food
from the weak solution the plant will use a great
amount of water. Just as a man who is kept on a
diet of soup—the richer the soup the less he will
require to keep up his bodily functions so with the
plant—the stronger the soil solution the less of it
•will be required by the plant for a
growth.
It is clear then that if we have too much water in
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There are millions of acres of arid and semi-arid lands within the United States which are not
producing crops. Sagebrush desert, like the tract pictured above, can bp reclaimed only by irri
gation. Lands which get an average annual rainfall of 10 inches or more can be reclaimed by
dry-farming methods. But it is useless to attempt dry-farming methods
to reclaim land that is fitted only for irrigation.
the soil the soil solution will be weak and the crop
will have to take up a greater amount to secure the
required food. Again, it is plain that as the organic
elements in the soil that make up the greater part
of plant food dissolve very slowly the longer the
moisture is kept in the soil in contact with the soil
grains the stronger will become the solution and
the less of it will be required by the growing crop.
The longer we boil the soupbone the richer the soup.
This is the theory—what are the facts that back
The amount of water used by growing crops is
enormous. To produce a pound of dry matter re
quires from 265 to 753 pounds of water. The
amount is not stable but varies with the kind of
crop, condition of the soil, the temperature and the
winds. King of Wisconsin found that it required
464 pounds of water to produce one pound of barley
(grain and straw), 503 pounds of water to produce
one pound of oats, 271 pounds of water to produce
one pound of corn, etc. These and other experi
ments conducted in both Europe and America have
determined with scientific accuracy the amount of
moisture required to produce a unit of dry matter
of the various field crops under a variety of field
PAGE FIVE
that is the one in which the farmer, especially the
dry farmer, is most interested. It was found that
less water was necessary to produce a unit of dry
matter when the soil was well fertilized than when
it was not," and that the greatest amount of dry
matter was produced when transpiration was least.
It was further found that when the soil was prop
erly tilled less water was needed by the crop.
The reason for this was plain. The more fertile
the soil the richer the soil solution and the less of
it necessary to sustain the life of the plant. Now
let us apply this principle to the practice of summer
tillage in the dry-farming regions.
For more than a quarter of a century Hardy W.
Campbell has maintained that his experience in ac
tual field work demonstrated that the crops planted
on summer-tilled fields did not require as much
moisture as those on continuously cropped land.
Why The reason in the light of evidence supplied
by King and later by J. A. Widtsoe of Utah is quite
convincing. Summer tillage, by holding the mois
ture in the soil from one season to another, in
creases the available fertility of the soil by dissolv
ing inorganic plant food,
thereby enriching the soil so
lution. It has the same effect
as the application of artificial
fertilizers. The longer the
soupbone is allowed to sim
mer the richer the soup. Sum
mer tillage—clean summer
fallow—then not only stores
moisture in the soil for next
year's crop but it takes the
place of a fertilizer in increas
ing normal crop yields.
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conditions. One outstanding fact was noted and ing and soon we shall know where we now guess.
CULTIVATION REDUCES
WATER REQUIREMENTS
Experiments at the agricul
tural college of Utah as re
ported by Widtsoe, showing
the effect of cultivation and
summer tillage, are most in
teresting and instructive.
On sandy loam not cultivat
ed it required 603 pounds of
water to produce a pound of
dry matter (corn) on the
same soil, cultivated, only 252
pounds were required. On a
clay loam, not cultivated, 535
pounds were required, but
when cultivated only 428
pounds were necessary. On
a clay soil, pot cultivated, it
required 753 pounds, while on
the same soil cultivated 582
pounds were enough. The
farmer who carefully culti
vates the soil throughout .the
summer and after every rain
has the satisfaction of know­
ing that he is accomplishing two very important
things—he is keeping the moisture in the soil for
the next year's crop, and he is making it possible
for crops to be grown with much less water than
otherwise would be required.
It is not clearly understood what changes occur
in the soil of the fallow field when properly culti
vated to give the soil fertility that reduces the
water needs of the plant. The researches of At
kinson of Montana, Stewart and Graves of Utah
and Jensen of South Dakota point to the formation
of nitrates as an important factor in the process.
The chemical change is doubtless brought about
by the action of heat on the moist soil beneath the
mulch. Another theory advanced by soil biologists
is that summer tillage, by holding the soil moisture
near the surface where the heat and air combines
with the moisture, produces an ideal condition for
the development of bacteria.
I am inclined to give this theory most favorable
consideration, for we are rapidly coming to the con
clusion that the microscopic bacteria of the soil are
the chemists in nature's great laboratory that pre
pare the food for the growing crops.
We are rapidly solving the problems of crop grow-