DRY-FARMING 



despair the settlers swung their plows 

 into the hopeless sage-brush lands, 

 planted their wheat, waited, watched and 

 prayed. To their amazement the seed 

 sprouted and the young plants stood up 

 bravely in the scorching sun and yielded 

 a bountiful crop. This was the first great 

 victory for dry-farming in the State of 

 Utah. For several years the practice 

 was confined to the northern part of the 

 State — notably the Cache Valley — and it 

 has only been spread to the central and 

 southern counties within the past decade 

 or so. But as far back as the year 1879 

 Major J. W. Powell in his volume en- 

 titled "The Lands of the Arid Region" 

 speaks of the strange sight of these dry- 

 farms. And Brigham Young often pre- 

 dicted that the time would come when the 

 lands above the irrigation canals would 

 produce vast crops of grain. It was only 

 however, as the rivers passed into private 

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