COMING OF THE SETTLER. 



89 



The Dry Farmers. During the past few years a new 

 type of settler, the dry farmer or "kafer corn-er," as he is 

 often called, has worked great changes in the western 

 ranges, especially in the Great Plains region lying east 

 of the Rocky Mountains. Through this broad strip, 

 which is probably 200 miles wide and extends from the 

 Canadian line on the north down into the Texas staked 

 plains on the south, the annual rainfall of about 18 inches 

 is sufficient to admit of dry farming, or farming without 

 irrigation, if carried on under certain well-defined prin- 

 ciples. 



While the dry farming scheme is not altogether of 

 recent origin, having been practiced for many years in 

 certain portions of the arid region, it attracted but little 

 attention until a few years ago. Partially under the im- 

 pulse of land-booming agencies, this new system of farm- 

 ing was brought prominently before the public. As the 

 areas on which it could be applied were large and open 

 to settlement under Government laws, the land-hungry 

 people eagerly took up the idea. The Panhandle of 

 Texas was the scene of the greatest development, and in 

 an incredibly short time thousands of settlers secured 

 homes on land that had been previously classed as fit 

 only for grazing purposes. Aided by a series of unusu- 

 ally good years they grew crops the equal of anything 

 possible by irrigation. Miles and miles of prairie land 

 were broken up by farmers, most of them well-to-do 

 eastern men, who brought with them not only their 

 horses, cows and household furniture but money enough 

 to carry them over the first few years. 



Under such conditions the changes that came over 

 the land in the dry-farming regions were remarkable. 

 Little hamlets grew into towns, towns into cities, and 



