The methods of harvesting crops on dry-farms are practically those for farms in humid districts.  The one great exception may be the use of the header on the grain farms of the dry-farm sections.  The header has now become well-nigh general in its use.  Instead of cutting and binding the grain, as in the old method, the heads are simply cut off and piled in large stacks which later are threshed.  The high straw which remains is plowed under in the fall and helps to supply the soil with organic matter.  The maintenance of dry-farms for over a generation without the addition of manures has been made possible by the organic matter added to the soil in the decay of the high vigorous straw remaining after the header.  In fact, the changes occurring in the soil in connection with the decaying of the header stubble appear to have actually increased the available fertility.  Hundreds of Utah dry wheat farms during the last ten or twelve years have increased in fertility, or at least in productive power, due undoubtedly to the introduction of the header system of harvesting.  This system of harvesting also makes the practice of fallowing much more effective, for it helps maintain the organic matter which is drawn upon by the fallow seasons.  The header should be used wherever practicable.  The fear has been expressed that the high header straw plowed under will make the soil so loose as to render proper sowing difficult and also, because of the easy circulation of air in the upper soil layers, cause a large loss of soil-moisture.  This fear has been found to be groundless, for wherever the header straw has been plowed under; especially in connection with fallowing, the soil has been benefited.

Rapidity and economy in harvesting are vital factors in dry-farming, and new devices are constantly being offered to expedite the work.  Of recent years the combined harvester and thresher has come into general use.  It is a large header combined with an ordinary threshing machine.  The grain is headed and threshed in one operation and the sacks dropped along the path of the machine.  The straw is scattered over the field where it belongs.

All in all, the question of sowing, care of crop, and harvesting may be answered by the methods that have been so well developed in countries of abundant rainfall, except as new methods may be required to offset the deficiency in the rainfall which is the determining condition of dry-farming.

CHAPTER XII

CROPS FOR DRY-FARMING

The work of the dry-farmer is only half done when the soil has been properly prepared, by deep plowing, cultivation, fallowing, for the planting of the crop.  The choice of the crop, its proper seeding, and its correct care and harvesting are as important as rational soil treatment in the successful pursuit of dry-farming.  It is true that in general the kinds of crops ordinarily cultivated in humid regions are grown also on arid