18 



DRY FARMING IN THE GREAT BASIN. 



feature, of the Great Plains climate is its relatively heavy summer 

 rainfall and its dry winters. 



ANNUAL VARIATION IN RAINFALL. 



There are no rainfall records covering long periods of time for the 

 places in the Great Basin where dry farming is now attracting the 



most attention. 

 The earlier settlers 

 were interested 

 chiefly in irriga- 

 tion farming and 

 gave but little at- 

 tention to rainfall. 

 With few excep- 

 tions such records 

 as are in existence 

 have been made in 

 cities or towns that 

 were located with 

 reference to irriga- 

 tion or transporta- 

 tion facilities 

 rather than in rep- 

 resentative agri- 



cultural regions, 

 and consequently 

 the available rec- 

 ords are of limited 

 agricultural appli- 

 tion. 



The following 

 charts show the 

 total annual pre- 

 cipitation at four 

 places in Utah 

 where dry farm- 

 ing: is now carried 

 on to some extent. 

 In fact, the two 

 towns Logan and 

 L e V a n probably 

 represent the best 

 and most extensive development of dry farming in that region. Such 

 records as these are valuable in proportion to their length, for when 

 long continued they furnish a basis for interpreting present condi- 

 tions Avithout which wrong judgment would be almost certain. 



103 



Fig. 3. 



-Diagrams showing the average monthly precipitation at some 

 representative points in the semiarid West. 



