14 ARID AGRICULTURE. 



the success of the new dry farm movement, the 

 old residents simply see the wrecking of their 

 own industry to no permanent good. They re- 

 luctantly admit successes in farming which they 

 did not at first believe possible, but lay the suc- 

 cess to temporary favorable seasons. "The hand- 

 writing is on the wall." The application of 

 new knowledge, in soil culture, in adapting of 

 useful drouth resistant plants, in machinery and 

 power, and in an hundred significant ways 

 means that there will be no turning backward. 

 The development may come more slowly than 

 the more enthusiastic advocates predict ; but 

 come it must, and the gain will be of enormous 

 import to the commonwealths situated in the 

 great arid region "the best half of the United 

 States." 



EFFECT OF 



SOLVING 



WESTERN 



PROBLEMS 



Agriculture in the West is new. Forty years 

 is a short time in which to develop a new ag^icul- 

 tural country. It is true that our earliest great 

 civilizations were all built up in arid regions, but 

 for the past twenty centuries or more (of dark 

 ages) man has taken haphazard chances with 

 humid farming. Although the time has been 

 so short, already some new principles are being 

 worked out which will be found useful to farmer 

 and stockman wherever located. The practice 

 of irrigation is spreading to more humid sections 

 of the country. The principles of scientific soil 

 culture, the conservation and use of moisture, 



