DRY-FARMING 



tention of every dry-farmer. The figures 

 are taken from the records of the 

 Weather Bureau for the Great Plains 

 area for the past thirty years. In the 

 year 1905, a season of excessive rain, the 

 annual average for the Great Plains as a 

 whole was 27 inches; but for the year 

 1907 the total precipitation for the same 

 year had sunk to a little less than 18 

 inches. Notwithstanding this apparent 

 decrease, Briggs emphatically states that 

 "there is no foundation for the statement 

 which has been made so often that the 

 climate of the Great Plains as far as 

 precipitation is concerned is permanently 

 changed." Further, he clearly shows 

 that if we divide the precipitation into 

 ten-year periods and take the average for 

 these periods that the rainfall during the 

 years 1895-1905 exceeds the rainfall for 

 the previous ten years 1885-1894, which 

 includes the great drought of 1893 and 

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