conditions cause strong regular winds in many other places; the air
is dry and the sunshine is very abundant. In brief, little water
falls upon the dry-farm territory, and the climatic factors are of a
nature to cause rapid evaporation.

In view of this knowledge, it is not surprising that thousands of
farmers, employing, often carelessly agricultural methods developed
in humid sections, have found only hardships and poverty on the
present dry-farm empire of the United States.

Drouth

Drouth is said to be the arch enemy of the dry-farmer, but few agree
upon its meaning. For the purposes of this volume, drouth may be
defined as a condition under which crops fail to mature because of
an insufficient supply of water. Providence has generally been
charged with causing drouths, but under the above definition, man is
usually the cause. Occasionally, relatively dry years occur, but
they are seldom dry enough to cause crop failures if proper methods
of farming have been practiced. There are four chief causes of
drouth: (1) Improper or careless preparation of the soil; (2)
failure to store the natural precipitation in the soil; (3) failure
to apply proper cultural methods for keeping the moisture in the
soil until needed by plants, and (4) sowing too much seed for the
available soil-moisture.

Crop failures due to untimely frosts, blizzards, cyclones,
tornadoes, or hail may perhaps be charged to Providence, but the
dry-farmer must accept the responsibility for any crop injury
resulting from drouth. A fairly accurate knowledge of the climatic