28 DRY LAND FARMING 



greatly improving the system and of reducing it, as it 

 were, to a science and of riveting the attention of the 

 outside world on the merit that inheres in these improve- 

 ments. 



Dry farming in the United States. Dry farming as 

 now practised in the United Slates has been evolved 

 within the last 50 years. That the evolution took place 

 in various centres acting independently and without inter- 

 communication is accepted by those who know the facts. 

 The chief centres of this evolution were Utah, California 

 and the Great Basin area, the Great Plains country, the 

 Mountain States, the Columbia river basin, and the 

 Colorado and Rio Grande river basins. Although the 

 methods practised were largely, if riot entirely, of inde- 

 pendent development, they all led to the one great central 

 truth that underlies successful practise in dry areas, viz. : 

 the conservation of the moisture that falls to the greatest 

 extent that may be practicable. 



It would seem fair to concede that Utah led in the 

 introduction of dry farming. There is evidence to show 

 that it was practised to some extent by the Mormons 

 as early as 1855. In 1863 dry farming was begun by 

 Scandinavians in the vicinity of Bear River City. A 

 year or two later Christopher Layton began to grow 

 crops on the Sand Ridge between Ogden and Salt Lake 

 City, a region in which dry farm crops have been grown 

 for many years. Simultaneously, or a little later, George 

 L. Farrell introduced dry land farming into the Cache 

 valley, where it has been practised with increasing success 

 down to the present time. Gradually the work extended 

 through other portions of Utah, insomuch that dry land 

 farming is now the chief slogan of the Utah farmers. 



For several decades dry farming has been practised 

 with at least fair success in certain portions of California. 

 The chief centres of such practise in former years were 

 the valleys of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers, but 



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