50 DRY LAND FARMING 



Colorado and Rio Grande river basins. These divisions 

 are based chiefly on the drainage features which they pos- 

 sess respectively, but each has distinctive features per- 

 taining to precipitation, temperature and other weather 

 conditions, and, therefore, also to production. 



The Great Plains area includes parts of North Da- 

 kota, South Dakota, Montana, Nebraska, Kansas, Wy- 

 oming, Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas, 

 also considerable areas in southern Alberta and Sas- 

 katchewan. This is the largest area by far of dry farming 

 land found in the west, under what may be termed ap- 

 proximately uniform conditions. The drainage of this 

 vast area is into the Saskatchewan, Red and Mississippi 

 rivers, which means that it is essentially eastward, and 

 it covers an area of not less probably than 450,000 square 

 miles, thus embracing about 288,000,000 acres. This is 

 the largest area of land found on the American conti- 

 nent under practically uniform conditions, and because of 

 its extent and the character of its production it is by 

 far the most valuable portion of the semi-arid country. 

 From Canada to Texas the farmers have been successful 

 in this area where they have followed approved dry 

 farming methods. It has special adaptation to growing 

 wheat and other grain, and in many portions thereof it 

 will grow good crops of alfalfa, corn for fodder and to a 

 less extent for the grain, also the sorghums and the mil- 

 lets. The entire region has shown special adaptation for 

 the production of high class cereals. 



The Inter-mountain states include a part of Mon- 

 tana, nearly all of Wyoming and Colorado, and part of 

 eastern Idaho. As Widtsoe has stated, this region is 

 located along the backbone of the Rocky Mountains. 

 The farms are located chiefly in the river valleys and on 

 the large and undulating table lands at the base of the 

 mountains. Dry farming is already well established in 

 certain portions of this area but the land brought under 



