358 DRY-FARMING 
are districts in which dry-farming has been practiced 
successfully under a precipitation of about ten inches, 
whereas in Utah the limit has been more nearly 
twelve inches. 
In the Great Plains area the history of dry-farming 
is hopelessly lost in the greater history of the devel- 
opment of the eastern and more humid parts of that 
section of the country. The great influx of settlers 
on the western slope of the Great Plains area occurred 
in the early ’80’s and overflowed into eastern Colo- 
rado and Wyoming a few years later. The settlers 
of this region brought with them the methods of 
humid agriculture and because of the relatively 
high precipitation were not forced into the careful 
methods of moisture conservation that had been 
forced upon Utah, California, and the Columbia 
Basin. Consequently, more failures in dry-farming 
are reported from those early days in the Great Plains 
area than from the drier sections of the far West. 
Dry-farming was practiced very successfully in the 
Great Plains area during the later ’80’s. Accord- 
ing to Payne, the crops of 1889 were very good; in 
1890, less so; in 1891, better; in 1892 such immense 
crops were raised that the settlers spoke of the 
section as God’s country; in 1893, there was a par- 
tial failure, and in 1894 the famous complete failure, 
which was followed in 1895 by a partial failure. 
Since that time fair crops have been produced an- 
nually. The dry years of 1893-1895 drove most 
