32 DRY-FARMING 



farm it would be an impossibility. It must not be 

 forgotten, however, that some of the best dry-farm 

 lands of the West are found in the small mountain 

 valleys, which usually are pockets of most fertile 

 soil, under a good supply of rainfall. The foothills 

 of the mountains are almost invariably excellent 

 dry-farm lands. Newell estimates that 195,000,000 

 acres of land in the arid to sub-humid sections are 

 covered with a more or less dense growth of timber. 

 This timJTJered area roughly represents the mountain- 

 ous and therefore the nonarable portions of land. 

 The same authority estimates that the desert-like 

 lands cover an area of 70,000,000 acres, flaking 

 the most liberal estimates for mountainous and 

 desert-like lands, at least one half of the whole 

 area, or about 600,000,000 acres, is arable land, 

 which by proper methods may be reclaimed for 

 agricultural purposes. Irrigation when fully de- 

 veloped may reclaim not to exceed 5 per cent of 

 this area. From any point of view, therefore, the 

 possibilities involved in dry-farming in the United 

 States are immense. 



Dry-farm area of the world 



Dry-farming is a world problem. Aridity is a 

 condition met and to be overcome upon ever}' con- 

 tinent. McColl estimates that in Australia, which is 

 somewhat larger than the continental United States 



