HISTORY OF DRY-FARMING 



exception of California — it is also of in- 

 terest to note that the colonists of Utah 

 have also been the pioneers in dry-farm- 

 ing. The total area of the Mormon 

 Commonwealth is 82,190 square miles; 

 but the holdings are small; the average 

 size farm being about forty acres; while 

 five and ten acres are not uncommon. 

 This, of course, refers to farms under 

 irrigation. At the present moment, how- 

 ever, only 983 square miles are irrigated, 

 or a little more than one per cent, 

 of the total land of the State. For the 

 sake of argument, increase the irrigated 

 area to 10,000 square miles, and yet only 

 a trifle more than twelve per cent, of the 

 State will be under irrigation farming, 

 leaving 72,000 square miles, or nearly 

 45,000,000 acres of arid lands. The soil 

 of these millions of acres is fertile; the 

 rainfall is low; they are covered with 

 sage-bush, greasewood, and sunflowers; 

 2 21 



