THE HISTORY ON THE GREAT PLAINS 359 
of the discouraged settlers back to humid sections 
and delayed, by many years, the settlement and 
development of the western side of the Great Plains 
area. That these failures and discouragements were 
due almost entirely to improper methods of soil 
culture is very evident to the present day student of 
dry-farming. In fact, from the very heart of the 
section which was abandoned in 1893-1895 come 
reliable records, dating back to 1886, which show 
successful crop production every year. The famous 
Indian Head experimental farm of Saskatchewan, 
at the/north end of the Great Plains area, has an 
unbroken record of good crop yields from 1888, and 
the early ’90’s were quite as dry there as farther 
south. However, in spite of the vicissitudes of the 
section, dry-farming has taken a firm hold upon the 
Great Plains area and is now a well-established prac- 
tice. 
The curious thing about the development of dry- 
farming in Utah, California, Washington, and the 
Great Plains is that these four sections appear to 
have originated dry-farming independently of each 
other. True, there was considerable communica-. 
tion from 1849 onward between Utah and California, 
and there is a possibility that some of the many 
Utah settlers who located in California brought with 
them accounts of the methods of dry-farming as 
practiced in Utah. This, however, cannot be authen- 
ticated. It is very unlikely that the farmers of 
