REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 125 



and municipal organizations, and of practical farmers along all lines 

 of investigation having a bearing upon dry-land farming. 



With the above-mentioned considerations constantly in mind, the 

 work of the Office of Dry-Land Agriculture has rapidly developed 

 in the last six years, until it now has under actual operation or in 

 process of development six fully equipped field stations under its own 

 financial and administrative control, and provides field and labora- 

 tory facilities for many other cooperating investigators. These sta- 

 tions are located at ISIandan, N. Dak.; Ardmore, S. Dak.; Akron, 

 Colo. ; "Woodward, Okla. ; Dalhart, Tex. ; and Tucumari, N. Mex. 



It is carrying on its investigations in cooperation with the Office 

 of Western Irrigation Agriculture at three stations, namely, Hunt- 

 ley, Mont.; Bellefourche, S. Dak.; Mitchell, Nebr. ; and with the 

 Office of Cereal Investigations at Amarillo, Tex. 



It is conducting its work in cooperation with the State experiment 

 stations at eight stations, namely, Judith Basin, Mont. ; Williston, 

 Dickinson, Hettinger, and Edgeley, N. Dak.; North Platte, Nebr.; 

 and Hays and Garden City, Kans. 



At all of the above-named 18 stations investigations in crop rota- 

 tions, cultivation and tillage methods, the conservation of soil mois- 

 ture, and meteorological observations are being conducted in a sys- 

 tematized manner. In addition to these, many special problems are 

 being studied through cooperation with other investigators. 



If this work continues to develop in the future as it has in the 

 past six years, it will result in the accumulation of a mass of care- 

 fully recorded and thoroughly coordinated scientific data based upon 

 original investigations and having a direct bearing upon the funda- 

 mental agricultural problems of a vast area, such as has never before 

 been undertaken, and the value of which to the present and to future 

 generations can not be overestimated. 



If this country is to continue to produce food for its own people 

 with a surplus for export, all of the fertile semiarid lands must be 

 made to produce some kind of food product, and this must be done 

 without the fearful loss in ruined fortunes and wrecked lives which 

 has accompanied the unsuccessful attempts in the past to develop 

 the agriculture of some parts of this area. This can be accomplished 

 by a thorough understanding of the problems involved, which can be 

 gained only by investigations of this character and scope. 



CROPS RESISTANT TO ALKALI AND DRY-LAND CONDITIONS. 



Problems chiefly associated with irrigation and dry-land agricul- 

 ture have to do with alkali resistance of various crops. The alkali 

 resistance of numerous crop plants has been tested comparatively at 

 field stations in the AVostoni States, and the results have been sup- 

 plemented by observations in northern Africa, where agriculture has 



