LOCATION AND GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE REGION. 9 



manifestly iiiiich easier to experiment in dn^ farminij, to gamble on 

 the "weather as it were, if one has an irrigated farm to fall back upon 

 in adverse seasons. Even where it is possible by the use of windmills 

 or the development of springs or small streams to irrigate relatively 

 small fields during a protracted drought, the settler is able to tide 

 over times when without such a resource complete failure would be 

 inevitable. When the utilization of the dry lands can proceed from 

 well-established agricultural centers, such as irrigated sections, in- 

 stead of having to start unsupported in the midst of the dry lands, 

 the risk of disastrous failure is greatly reduced. 



From the modest and tentative beginnings of a third of a century 

 ago there has grown a well-established system of farming in some 

 sections of the country west of the Rocky Mountains. There are in 

 this great intermountain area three fairly well defined regions in 

 which dry farming" is now practiced to a considerable extent. For 

 convenience of designation, these regions may be named the Great 

 Basin, the Columbia River Valley, and the interior valley of Cali- 

 fornia. Each of these areas includes localities with widely differing 

 conditions of soil, climate, and agi'iculture, and each, taken as a whole, 

 differs from the others in important jiarticulars, yet they have some 

 important features in common not shared by the Great Plains region, 

 which includes most of the arid lands east of the Rockv Mountains. 



LOCATION AND GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE REGION. 



The agricultural region referred to as the Great Basin area (fig. 1) 

 occupies a portion of the great depression between the Rocky Moun- 

 tains and the Sierra Nevada. To the north of the Great Basin 

 lies the drainage basin of the Columbia River, while to the southward 

 the drainage is collected by the Colorado River. The Great Basin 

 proper is well defined topographically. It includes a large irregular 

 body of land lying chiefly in the States of Utah, Nevada, Oregon, and 

 California, of which the drainage finds no outlet to the ocean, but 

 instead collects in various lakes and sinks, from which it evaporates. 



« The term " dry farming " is a recent addition to agricultural literature, but 

 since it meets a real need it will probably find a permanent place. There is some 

 difference of opinion as to just what the expression means. It is ordinarily 

 understood to mean farming in an arid or semiarid region without irrigation, 

 but this is often confusing, since " arid " is at best a relative expression and 

 irrigation is often used even in humid regions. All good farming involves at 

 least some tillage of the soil, which accomplishes several purposes at once. The 

 soil is aerated, weeds are killed, the tilth is improved, and moisture is conserved. 

 Sometimes one and sometimes another of these objects is the chief aim, and 

 sometimes all are important. In dry farming, however, the one object of para- 

 mount importance is the conservation of soil moisture, and all the tillage opera- 

 tions are directed to this end. 



i03 



