THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF DRY FARMING 27 



area that is farmed or that may be farmed by the methods 

 that obtain where humid farming is practised. 



From what has been said, it will be apparent that 

 it will never be known who were the orginators of dry 

 farming. It is more than probable that the methods 

 followed orginated at least to a considerable extent in 

 the various countries in which they were practised. The 

 claim of any one now living, therefore, to be the origin- 

 ator of dry farming methods is simply absurd, and the 

 acknowledgment of that claim by the public shows an 

 almost total lack of knowledge regarding the facts that 

 bear upon its origin. 



Widtsoe has made it clear in his admirable book 

 "Dry Farming" that dry farming as practised in the 

 western states was the evolution of an experience that 

 does not in many instances go back beyond the middle 

 of the last century. He has made it clear that this 

 experience was gained independently and mainly in the 

 four distinct centers, Utah, California, Washington and 

 the Great Plains country. Further reference will be 

 made to this evolution (see p. 35). The methods followed 

 in these independent areas came to centre around a 

 system that is practically uniform. This system included 

 deep plowing, perferably fall plowing, conserving the 

 moisture by surface cultivation, light seeding and devot- 

 ing with more or less frequency an entire season to con- 

 serving moisture in the soil without cropping it. 



These misconceptions have doubtless originated 

 chiefly in the wide publicity given to the dry farming 

 propaganda that is now being conducted with so much 

 vigor in the states that lie to the west of the Mississippi 

 river. For this publicity the "Dry Farming Congress" 

 organized in 1907 is largely responsible. To the major 

 portion of the people of the United States the conception 

 is new, hence the conviction that the science itself is 

 new. To this country, however, belongs the credit of 



