ARID AGRICULTURE. 



13 



COMING OP 



MORE 

 INTENSIVE 

 DEVELOP- 

 MENT 



This comparatively new art of agriculture is 

 that of dry farming. A few practical scientists 

 and farmers have been unselfishly studying and 

 demonstrating the possibilities of extending our 

 productive area by the more intelligent use of 

 natural resources. Because some unscrupulous 

 "get-rieli-quick" land agents have taken advan- 

 tage of the movement and exaggerated its possi- 

 bilities is no reason for condemnation. On the 

 other hand, the feelings of those who have either 

 experienced or known of the first disasters which 

 r< --ulted from settlement, and attempts to follow 

 out the fariii methods of our fathers (which had 

 been practiced for centuries in humid regions), 

 must be respected. Xor must we judge harshly 

 the honest skepticism, contempt, or resulting de- 

 spair of Western stockmen who have spent the 

 best portion of their lives in building up re- 

 munerative stock-grazing industries based upon 

 the free use of the range, and whose business is 

 being destroyed by the encroachment of the small 

 irrigation farmer and the dry farmer. It is only 

 right that these men should be well paid for giv- 

 ing up their holdings to new settlement. They 

 have pioneered and braved early hardships, such 

 that only the most hardy could endure. They 

 have builded homes; they have wrested suste- 

 nance from the breast of nature and have come 

 to love the occupation which they have made suc- 

 cessful only through a lifetime of heart-interests 

 and undivided thought. With no confidence in 



