THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT 373 
problems of the arid region. The Weather Bureau, 
long established and with perfected methods, has 
been invaluable in guiding investigators into regions 
‘where experiments could be undertaken with some 
hope of success. The Department of Agriculture was 
somewhat slow, however, in recognizing dry-farming 
as a system of agriculture requiring special investiga- 
tion. The final recognition of the subject came with 
the appointment, in 1905, of Chilcott as expert in 
charge of dry-land investigations. At the present 
time an office of dry-land investigations has been estab- 
lished under the Bureau of Plant Industry, which co- 
operates with a number of other divisions of the 
Bureau in the investigation of the conditions and 
methods of dry-farming. A large number of sta- 
tions are maintained by the Department over the 
arid and semiarid area for the purpose of studying 
special problems, many of which are maintained 
in connection with the state experiment stations. 
Nearly all the departmental experts engaged in dry- 
farm investigation have been drawn from the service 
of the state stations and in these stations had re- - 
ceived their special training for their work. The 
United States Department of Agriculture has chosen 
to adopt a strong conservatism in the matter of dry- 
farming. It may be wise for the Department, as the 
official head of the agricultural interests of the coun- 
try, to use extreme care in advocating the settlement 
of a region in which, in the past, farmers had failed 
