256 DRY-FARMING 



to be profitable and will then be brought into the 

 commercial scheme of clr3'-farming. 



j\Ieanwhile, the crop problems of dry-farming de- 

 mand that much careful work be done in the im- 

 mediate future by the agencies having such work in 

 charge. The best varieties of crops already in prof- 

 itable use need to be determined. More new plants 

 from all parts of the world need to be brought to this 

 new dry-farm territory and tried out. Many of the 

 native plants need examination with a view to their 

 economic use. For instance, the seg(j hly bulbs, upon 

 which the Utah pioneers subsisted for several seasons 

 of famine, may possilily be made a cultivated crop. 

 Finally, it remains to l)e said that it is doubtful wis- 

 dom to attempt to grow the more intensive crops on 

 dry-farms. Irrigation and dr}--farming ^^ill always 

 go together. They are supplementary systems of 

 agriculture in arid and semiarid regions. On the 

 irrigated lands should be grown the crops that require 

 much labor per acre and that in return yield largely 

 per acre. New crops and varieties should besought 

 for the irrigated farms. On the dry-farms should be 

 grown the crops that can be handled in a large way 

 and at a small cost per acre, and that jield only 

 moderate acre returns. B}' such c(36peration between 

 irrigation and dry-farming will the regions of the 

 world with a scanty rainfall become the healthiest, 

 wealthiest, happiest, and most populous on earth. 



to 



