“As if you was a trouble, Rosey.”
Fearing that the other young people might not be able to restrain their amusement at this scene much longer, Mr. Hopkins put an end to the danger of offending the bride and groom by asking:
“How did you find things at Boscow? I’ve always thought I should like to see how they run one of those experimental farms, or stations, as they call them.”
“Well, you’d better save your money. It’s interesting, of course, but it’s all experiment,” replied Jerry. “The whole farm is divided up into sections. In one they grow stuff according to the way it’s always been growed, and in the next they are experimenting with some idee one of the experts has had. Then, ’s like as not, the next section ain’t got nothing planted at all, just going to waste. And the whole kerboodle of ’em is jest ‘loco’ over one idee—‘cultivation.’ If you ask how many times to irrigate a field of wheat, they’ll say ‘depends on how it’s been cultivated.’ It’s ‘cultivate’ all the time. Dryfarming may be all right, but there’s too much ‘cultivating’ and subsoil business about it for me. I’ll bet if you waked any of ’em up and told them there was a tornado coming, they’d ask how often it had been ‘cultivated.’”
“I’m afraid you were more interested in Rosey than in the farm,” smiled Mr. Hopkins, as the young husband paused in his tirade against the government stations. “Thanks to the experiments conducted by the government, millions of acres that were considered barren are now bearing crops, and it is cultivation that has wrought the change. Where the rainfall is light and the expense of irrigation is high, the lack of water can be overcome to a certain extent by keeping the soil free from weeds and from a sun-baked crust, which cultivation does. In other words, dry-farming where the subsoil is suitable. Yet it is only through numerous experiments that this has been proved. The field that you thought was going to waste was undoubtedly a ‘summer fallow.’ In the semi-arid regions the ground cannot produce crops year after year. When a field which has been cultivated has been left unplanted, it is called a ‘fallow.’ But in order to enable it to regain its vigour, the ground must be kept free from weeds and the crust broken, in other words, cultivated.”
“But why couldn’t they tell me how many times to irrigate a wheat field?” demanded Jerry.
“Because that depends on several things—the kind of soil, the grade of the land, the number of years it has been planted, and its general condition. After all, it is a matter of experience.”
“Then what’s the use of the experiment stations?” persisted the groom.
“Just this. The experts on them plant several fields of, say, wheat and employ a different method with each. A record is kept of each field, and when the wheat is harvested, the yields are compared. The method that has produced the most bushels per acre is then recommended to wheat-growers where the soil conditions are similar.”
“Say, I wish the government would put you on the Boscow station, then a fellow could know what they were talking about without toting a dictionary round with him,” commented Jerry. “How can I tell if the subsoil is fit for dry-farming or not?”