Dry Land Farming

Dry Land Farming is a technique used in dry climates where irrigation is unavailable, fields were plowed and seeds planted, commonly oat and barley hay, and farmers relied solely on rains to irrigate the crops. 

There were many different types of farming implements pulled by mules. Some of those implements are;

-PLOW is used to break up the hard ground, breaking the ground up into big chunks of soil.

-DISK was used to break up the big chunks left behind by the plow, adding fertilizer, turning over the soil, and preparing the soil 

-HARROW is used to level the newly disked soil to accept the seeds. It was also used after the grain drill, to cover the seeds.

-GRAIN DRILL planted the seeds. The depth and spacing was set prior to planting, once the mules were lined up in rows the Grain Drill would place seeds from the hopper.

-MOWING MACHINE cut the crop.

-HAY RAKE placed the cut crop onto windrows, this may have been used to rotate the windrows to help them dry out and not get moldy.

-BAILER bailed the windrows into hay bails.

This a very simplified process of dry land farming. As each implement is used the kids learn, not only the process, they learn how to set the implements, hook them to the mules with harnesses, and drive the mules. 

Other Implements used on the farms was the FRESNO SCRAPER. The Fresno Scraper was to clear and grub light brush, build and maintained roads, and build canals and irrigation ditches.