EECLAMATION OP ARID LANDS NEWELL. 175 



capacity. It seems to him a useless hardship to be compelled either 

 to give up the farm or to go and live upon it, and he urges that if 

 he be allowed to hold the farm and invest his savings in it he can 

 in the end bring about a higher development than would be possible 

 if he spent all his time on the farm itself. 



There is, however, no way of distinguishing between the small 

 investor and the large, and if the school-teacher has the right to 

 enjoy absentee landlordism, so has the man of larger means. Thus 

 it would soon happen that the bounty of the Govermnent would be 

 enjoyed b}^ people of comparative wealth and leisure, renting their 

 farms to the class of men who are most needed as resident owners. 



CROPS. 



The crops planted by the settlers are as varied as are the farmers 

 themselves and the climatic surroundings. They naturally endeavor 

 to raise the things with which they are familiar and are somewhat 

 slow in adapting their methods to the requirements of the soil and 

 climate. As a rule, grain is planted first, as it is a quick crop and it 

 is possible to realize an early return from the new ground. The 

 experienced irrigator endeavors to get a small part of the land into 

 alfalfa as quickly as possible, knowing that it enriches the soil. 

 With his first grain crop he sows on part of his land some alfalfa 

 seed and if the stand is good he leaves this small tract in alfalfa for 

 a few j^ears, cultivating the remaining areas and adding each year to 

 the alfalfa tract until the time arrives when he can plow in the alfalfa 

 which was first planted, turning the plants under to enrich the soil, 

 then cultivating it and planting to root crops (pi. 6, fig. 2). 



One of the problems with the lighter and sometimes better soils is 

 to hold these in place until the crops are established. The desert 

 A^egetation, the sagebrush and greasewood, while undisturbed protect 

 the soil from the winds, but, as has been shown by bitter experience 

 again and again, when these plants are removed and the ground is 

 plowed the winds of early spring sweeping furiously across the dry 

 level field blow the soil away in clouds, carrying off the seed (pi. 1, 



It requires a few incidents of this kind to convince the newcomer 

 that it is wise to follow the advice given him not to clear his entire 

 farm at once, but to leave rows of sagebrush across the path of the 

 prevailing spring winds. He soon appreciates that it is little short of 

 wicked to burn the sagebrush, and instead of piling it for destruction 

 he learns to leave it in long windrows, cultivating the places between 

 until the ground is well shaded by the growing crop and the roots 

 have been firmly established, then he can remove the remaining sage- 

 brush or windbreaks and get his entire field into crop. In a few years, 



