AGRICULTURAL PROBLEMS OF 

 THE SEMI-ARID REGIONS. 



BY DR. CLARKE GAPEN. 



Read before the Sixth National Irrigation Congress, Lincoln, Neb., Sept. 28, 29 and 



30th, 1897. 



By Semi-Arid regions, roughly speaking, I mean that strip of terri- 

 tory lying between the 95th and 100th meridians and extending from the 

 gulf of Mexico on the south to British America on the north. Its east- 

 ern boundary is not defined, but for convenience I have taken the 95th 

 meridan as such. Its western boundary is an irregular line beginning 

 about two degrees west of the 100th meridian on the Rio Grade River, 

 and running slightly north-east across the United States. At its south- 

 ern extremity the region is something over four hundred miles in width; 

 it narrows down to approximately 300 miles in width in its middle por 

 tion. and 250 miles in its northern portion, where it extends but a little 

 west of the Red River of the North. In the eastern half the annual pre- 

 cipitation of water amounts approximately from 30 to 40 inches, and in 

 its western to from 20 to 30 inches, an average of 25 to 35 inches. The 

 rain-fall in the South comes from the Gulf of Mexico, and in tho Worth 

 from the Great Lakes region. The higher temperature of the Gulf re- 

 gion probably accounts for the larger amount of evaporation and conse 

 quent wider spread OL rain fall. 



Probably no territory of similar area on the face of the earth pos- 

 sesses so large a percentage of arable lands. It is almost wholly free 

 from mountainous, marsh or other waste lands. The soil is an alluvium, 

 excellent quality, producing with sufficient moisture enormous crops of 

 cereals, fruits, vegetables, and in the southern portion, cotton and semi- 

 tropical fruits. 



Its climate is ore of the most salubrious and equable in the world, 

 varying from the semi-'tropical to the cold -temperate. A line, bracing 

 atmosphere, free from fogs, malaria and other forms of germ life, pre- 

 vails throughout, making the region an exceptionally healthy one and 

 one of the most agreeable to live in on the continent. The death rate is 

 phenomenally low. Yet in this very region, we have seen in the past 

 two or three decades, the struggle for existence and conquest of the soil 

 marked alternately by the flush of success and thu sigh of despair. 



Among the studies in sociology published by the Johns Hopkins 

 University, is one entitled "The Economic History of a Nebraska Town- 

 ship." In its cold statistical facts one may read the most pathetic stories 

 of success and failure, the holdings steadily increasing during several 

 successive years of sufficient rain-fall, only to fall off again by abandon- 

 ments or removals as a result of drouth. Of fifteen years history re- 



