DRY FARMING.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXXII, Issue 15511, 11 January 1911, Page 8

DRY FARMING.

The problem of raising crops in districts provided by nature with only a light rainfall, which has been commended to the attention of Australian scientific, men by Professor Angus, appears to have boon solved by the “dry farmers” of tho United States. There are few phases of agricultural development more remarkable than the'bringing into profitable cultivation of great areas of so-called “desert” in tbe American West. Professor Lewis A. Merrill, of tho Utah Agricultural College, ha 3 devoted a large part of his attention to tho study of dry farming methods, and from, a series of experiments ho has obtained some wonderful results. Seven years ugo he visited in Utah an apparently arid area, covered with sago brush and possessing a rainfall of less than fourteen inches. Experiments had shown that tho soil was rich and doop, but no water was available for irrigation, and the land had been condemned as useloss. Last year, when tho State was suffering from a drought, this area produced 200,000 bushels of wheat, and tho only handicap of which the settlers made complaint was a shortage of labour. The application of scientific methods of dry

farming has worked tho miracle. The soil is so treated that tho scanty rainfall is conserved and the growing plants are assisted in tho use of their natural power to draw upon tho supply of moisture always present in the air. The State "demonstration farms” in Utah produce crops of from forty to fifty bushels of wheat per acre on land long described officially as " desert.” "Upon the barren wastes tho hosts will surely settle and tho deserts will be made to blossom and boar fruit,” writes Professor Merrill. " Tho task of reclaiming them is worthy of the best efforts of an onlightened people.” His remarks have application to Australian conditions. The fact that the soil of the Commonwealth is almost uniformly good, whatevor may he the rainfall, is known already, and in South Australia the practical efficiency of dry farming methods lias been proved by the experience of many cultivators. The association of tho farmer with tho man of science, on tho lines suggested by Professor Angus, would bo an arrangcniont fraught with big possibilities for tho Commonwealth.