440 DRY LAND FARMING 



There is another class of farmers whose work is in 

 a sense speculative. They live in the cities. They 

 usually own large areas and farm them in a speculative 

 way. These men are wholly dependent on hired labor, 

 hence in order to get a remunerative return they must 

 of necessity farm large areas and in a wholesale way. 

 Such farming may be successful as long as the land is 

 new and clean, but in all states the story of such farming 

 is the same. Within a few years the land usually be- 

 comes very foul with weeds and the crops become so 

 unproductive that tillage operations result in loss, but 

 substantial profits may be realized, nevertheless, from 

 the advance in the price of the land. A locality cannot 

 be built up by farming on those lines as it can by the 

 effort of farmers on moderately sized farms, for reasons 

 that will be apparent. 



The nature of the farming probably more than any- 

 thing else should determine the size of the farms. 

 Where the farmer grows only grain and does the work 

 mainly himself, 160 acres is amply large for such a farm. 

 Where he keeps live stock and must needs confine the 

 grazing of them within the limits of his farm, he should 

 have not less than 320 acres of grazing land in dry 

 areas. Land in such areas does not produce so much 

 pasture as in areas that are moist. When the farmer 

 can control rough range pastures contiguous to his land 

 or that form a part of it, he may need a section or two 

 of rough land for each quarter section of arable land in 

 his possession. On the latter he will grow the food that 

 he needs for winter feeding. In yet other instances 

 the farm may be all classed as rough land, and yet within 

 it there may be enough arable valley land to enable the 

 farmer to grow on these the winter food needed. These 

 farms also should not contain less probably than one 

 or two sections. Under irrigation the small farm unit 

 is better than the large one for the average farmer. 



