OCR Text |
Show ADDRESSES AT CHARLESTON, 8. (1. DRY-WEATHER FARMING. [JOHN H. Smm, bppetinteodent Indian industrial school. Colony, Okla.] We are adopting in our country what we call irrigating without water, or dry-weather farming. It is a new method that I have found by experience is practical; and it is practicable to miise cro sin our country almost regardless of the season. The dmught we have so long dread%, that comes in certain monthsof the season, we are able to bridde over with this new process of farming. We take, for instance, a field which we wlsh to prepare in this way and we plough the field over, 4 inches deep. We follow up with a disk harrow, and we croas this as long as it is neceemry tq pul-verize the ground. Then we take a small-tooth steel harrow and over it untll the ground is very mellow, to the depth of 4 inches. We then pEw the field over tlgain 8 inches deep, @in us 4 inches of un ulverized dirt. We use the same process In ulverizing thls 4 incies that we did tke fimt. Then we plow again the same fie15 a foot deep, making another 4-inch layer unpnlverized on top, which we pul-verizein the same manner as before. We do this plowing in the fall, and weusually go over the field with a roller, just rolling it lightly over the surface. That is for making the surface even and reventing the wind, which sweeps over the ground in the winter and fall, from tafing up the moisture. In the spring we begin our cultivating h harrowing over the field with a steel-tooth harrow. Then we plant our corn anz begin cultivating it with a harrow, and we keep up our cultivation through the season. We cultivate sufficient1 often to preventany weeds whateverfromgrowing, and to keeptheground thorough$ nlver- *zed on top. This ground dries out, sometimes an inch to an inch and a hayf dee on top, and becomes almost a complete mass of dust on top of the gmund, whicg grevents the moisture fmm escaping from the ground beneath it. We call this a dust lanket. We have found by this way of cultivating that we an raise a crop of corn indistricts that are subject to drou hts, like Oklahoma, where I live almost any season. This process that I have just %escribedis only to begone through with once inthree yeam. The fall following the cultivation by this process we generally put in rye or wheat, and we sow it about the let of October, and we drill it in between the rows with a 1-home hose drill. The whwt will grow in this seed bed without depending upon any local rains. We have already retained moisture enough. Then throuwh the winter the cornstalks that we leave standing prevent the high winds fmm%rying the dirt around the roots of the wheat, and also prevent the dut from being blown |