Clearing and breaking

A large portion of the dry-farm territory of the United States is covered with sagebrush and related plants.  It is always a difficult and usually an expensive problem to clear sagebrush land, for the shrubs are frequently from two to six feet high, correspondingly deep-rooted, with very tough wood.  When the soil is dry, it is extremely difficult to pull out sagebrush, and of necessity much of the clearing must be done during the dry season.  Numerous devices have been suggested and tried for the purpose of clearing sagebrush land.  One of the oldest and also one of the most effective devices is two parallel railroad rails connected with heavy iron chains and used as a drag over the sagebrush land.  The sage is caught by the two rails and torn out of the ground.  The clearing is fairly complete, though it is generally necessary to go over the ground two or three times before the work is completed.  Even after such treatment a large number of sagebrush clumps, found standing over the field, must be grubbed up with the hoe.  Another and effective device is the so-called “mankiller.”  This implement pulls up the sage very successfully and drops it at certain definite intervals.  It is, however, a very dangerous implement and frequently results in injury to the men who work it.  Of recent years another device has been tried with a great deal of success.  It is made like a snow plow of heavy railroad irons to which a number of large steel knives have been bolted.  Neither of these implements is wholly satisfactory, and an acceptable machine for grubbing sagebrush is yet to be devised.  In view of the large expense attached to the clearing of sagebrush land such a machine would be of great help in the advancement of dry-farming.

Away from the sagebrush country the virgin dry-farm land is usually covered with a more or less dense growth of grass, though true sod is seldom found under dry-farm conditions.  The ordinary breaking plow, characterized by a long sloping moldboard, is the best known implement for breaking all kinds of sod. (See Fig. 7a a.) Where the sod is very light, as on the far western prairies, the more ordinary forms of plows may be used.  In still other sections, the dry-farm land is covered with a scattered growth of trees, frequently pinion pine and cedars, and in Arizona and New Mexico the mesquite tree and cacti are to be removed.  Such clearing has to be done in accordance with the special needs of the locality.

Plowing

Plowing, or the turning over of the soil to a depth of from seven to ten inches for every crop, is a fundamental operation of dry-farming.  The plow, therefore, becomes one of the most important implements on the dry-farm.  Though the plow as an agricultural implement is of great antiquity, it is only within the last one hundred years that it has attained its present perfection.  It is a question even to-day, in the minds of a great many students, whether the