CHAPTER XIX 
THE YEAR OF DROUTH 
Tue Shadow of the Year of Drouth still obscures 
the hope of many a dry-farmer. From the magazine 
page and the public platform the prophet of evil, 
thinking himself a friend of humanity, solemnly warns 
against the arid region and dry-farming, for the year 
of drouth, he says, is sure to come again and then will 
be repeated the disasters of 1893-1895. Beware of 
the year of drouth. Even successful dry-farmers who 
have obtained good crops every year for a generation 
or more are half led to expect a dry year — one so 
dry that crops will fail in spite of all human effort. 
The question is continually asked, ‘‘Can crop yields 
reasonably be expected every year, through a suc- 
cession of dry years, under semiarid conditions, if 
the best methods of dry-farming be practiced?” In 
answering this question, it may be said at the very 
beginning, that when the year of drouth is mentioned 
in connection with dry-farming, sad reference is al- 
ways made to the experience on the Great Plains in 
the early years of the ’90’s. Now the fact of the 
matter is, that while the years of 1893, 1894, and 1895 
were dry years, the only complete failure came in 
1894. In spite of the improper methods practiced by 
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