SEMI ARID AREAS 31 



70,000,000 acres of desert-like land; that is, land 

 which does not naturally support plants suitable 

 for forage. This area is about one third of the lands 

 which, so far as known, at present receive less than 

 10 inches of rainfall, or onl> about 6 per cent of the 

 total dry-farming territory. 



In any case, the semiarid area is at present most 

 vitally interested in dry-farming. The sub-humid 

 area need seldom suffer from drouth, if ordinary 

 well-known methods are employed; the arid area, 

 receiving less than 10 inches of rainfall, in all proba- 

 bihty, can be reclaimed without irrigation only by 

 the development of more suitable methods than are 

 known to-day. The semiarid area, which is the 

 special consideration of present-day dry-farming, 

 represents an area of over 725,000,000 acres of land. 

 Moreover, it must be remarked that the full cer- 

 tainty of crops in the sub-humid regions will come 

 only with the adoption of dry-farming methods; 

 and that results already obtained on the edge of 

 the "deserts" lead to the belief that a large portion 

 of the area receiving less than 10 inches of rainfall, 

 annually, will ultimately be reclaimed without irri- 

 gation. 



Naturally, not the whole of the vast area just 

 discussed could be brought under cultivation, even 

 under the most favorable conditions of rainfall. A 

 veiy large portion of the territory in question is 

 mountainous and often of so rugged a nature that to 



