Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: areas the keeping of live stock may with propriety become a feature of dry land farming from the very outset. Nor does dry farming mean the growing of all crops proper to the latitude. Some of these may succeed admirably in a certain latitude when the rainfall is normal, and yet they may partially or entirely fail when it is less than normal. Other crops, even of the same species, may succeed because of greater inherent ability to withstand drought and hard conditions generally. Such crops only should be grown in dry areas as may show reasonable adaptation for the same. What dry farming does mean.—Dry farming means: (1) growing crops under semi-arid conditions; (2) growing crops where the moisture is normally deficient; (3) growing them where moisture is temporarily deficient, and (4) growing special crops by special methods. Shortage in the moisture supply is the dominant thought that underlies any definition that may be framed regarding dry farming. Where arid conditions prevail, crops cannot be grown successfully without the aid of irrigation. In such areas there may be rain, but it is not enough to produce vegetation that is of any special value without the aid of man, and even with his aid it cannot be made profitable in the absence of irrigation. Where semi-arid conditions prevail, nature unaided produces growth, but it is sparse and deficient rather than generous and ample. Under these conditions, however, growth may be made so to aid nature in her effort, that production sparse and niggardly may be supplemented by production generous and even bountiful within certain limitations. In some of these areas the farmer has been able to grow more than 70 bushels of No. 1 hard wheat per acre on land that called for 10 to 20 acres of pasture to carry a cattle beast weighin...