Dry-Farming

f agricultural plants under a rainfall very much lower than that of humid regions. To make the principles of this system fu

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ply of water and food in the growth of a plant that, in a given soil, the crop yield is usually in direct proportion to the development of the root system. Whenever the roots are hindered in their development, the growth of the plant above ground is likewise retarded, and crop failure may result. The importance of roots is not fully appreciated because they are hi

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ot grows more rapidly than the secondary roots, the so-called taproot, characteristic of lucerne, clover, and similar plants, is formed. When, on the other hand, the taproot grows slowly or ceases its growth, and the numerous secondary roots grow long, a fibrous root system results, wh

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ghed as much as the total weight of the stems and leaves of the year's crop, and that the weight of roots of an oat crop was 43 per cent of the total weight of seed and straw. Nobbe, a few years later, found in one of his experiments that the roots of timothy weighed 31 per cent of the weight of the hay. Hosaeus, investigating the same

ned, it is very probable that the roots in one acre of an average wheat crop would weigh in the neighborhood of a thousand pounds-possibly considerably more. It should be remembered that the investigations which yielded the preceding results were all cond

lengths of all the fine roots from each of various plants. He found that the total length of roots, that is, the sum of the lengths of all the roots, of one wheat plant was about 268 feet, and that the total length of the roots of one plant of rye was abo

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s, Colorado, and especially the North Dakota stations to obtain accurate information concerning the depth to which agricultural plants penetrate soils. It is somewhat regrettable, for the purpose of dry-farming, that these states, wi

eet. The first striking result of the American investigations was that every crop, without exception, penetrates the soil deeper than was thought possible in

nial grasses rooted to a depth of four feet the first year; the next year, five and one half feet; no determinations were made of the depth of the roots in later years, though it had undoubtedly i

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, it seemed that the normal depth of the roots of ordinary field crops was from three to eight feet. Sub-soiling and deep plowing enable the roots

and porous and that the fertility of the subsoil is, in most cases, practically as great as of the topsoil. There is, therefore, in arid soils, an excellent opportunity for a comparatively easy penetration of the roots to great depths and, because of the available fertility, a chance throughout the whole of the subsoil for ample

ater is stored more or less uniformly to considerable depths-ten feet or more-and in most cases the percentage of moisture in the spring and summer is as large or larger some feet below the surface than in the upper two feet

rigation the plant receives so much water at such untimely seasons that the roots acquire the habit of feeding very near the surface where the water is so lavishly applie

untain torrents. Roots of trees, similarly, go down to great depths. Hilgard observes that he has found roots of grapevines at a depth of twenty-two feet below the surface, and quotes Aughey as having found roots of the native Shepherdia in Nebraska to a depth of fifty feet. Hilgard further declares that in California fibrous-rooted plants, such as wheat and barley

. A great deal has been said and written about the danger of deep cultivation, because it tends to injure the roots that feed near the surface. However true this may be in humid countries, it is not vital in the districts primarily interested in dry-farming; and it is dou

sure far from the hot sun or withering winds, and the plants survive and arrive at rich maturity, while the plants with shallow roots wither and die or are so seriously injured as to produce an inferior crop. Therefore, in the syste

he right kind of seed-bed and by having the soil in its lower depths well-stored with moisture, so that the plants may be invited