ARID AGRICULTURE. 



Desert." Stockmen early learned the value of 

 the West for grazing great flocks and herds. 

 With the accumulation of wealth from the public 

 domain they generously dropped the word ''des- 

 ert/' and called it the "Short grass country." 

 The storage of mountain snows supplies peren- 

 nial streams with water which man puts into 

 use for irrigation. A rather persistent belief 

 prevailed for some years that farm crops could 

 not be raised without irrigation. This idea, 

 along with the dry climate and characteristic, 

 unleached virgin soils placed the country on the 

 map as the arid region. Evolution always leads 

 towards greater perfection. Aleii of broad vision 

 realize that what was impossible yesterday be- 

 comes the common possession of tomorrow. 

 These so-called visionaries believed that there 

 were great sections of this arid region in which 

 the soils could and would be made to produce 

 more food and raiment for mankind by artificial 

 means and the application of scientific princi- 

 ples. In the semi-arid region where first at- 

 tempts at farming generally failed, the pointing 

 of the way by accumulation of experience and 

 the adoption of better methods, has resulted in 

 the establishment of thousands of new self-sup- 

 porting homes. In the far West, on the Pacific 

 Coast, and here and there east of the Rocky 

 Mountains, farm crops have been produced for 

 more than forty years, in some places with an 

 annual rainfall as small as eight inches. 



