358 DRY-FARMING 



are districts in which dry-farming has been practiced 

 successfully under a precipitation of about ten inches, 

 whereas in Utah the limit has been more nearly 

 twelve inches. 



In the Great Plains area the history of drj'-farming 

 is hopelessly lost in the greater history of the devel- 

 opment of the eastern and more humid parts of that 

 section of the country. The great influx of settlers 

 on the western slope of the Great Plains area occurred 

 in the early 'SO's and overflowed into eastern Colo- 

 rado and Wyoming a few years later. The settlers 

 of this region brought with them the methods of 

 humid agriculture and because of the relativel}' 

 high precipitation were not forced into the careful 

 methods of moisture conservation that had been 

 forced upon Utah, California, and the Columbia 

 Basin. Consequently, more failures in dry-farming 

 are reported from those early days in the Great Plains 

 area than from the drier sections of the far West. 

 Dry-farming was practiced very successfulh' in the 

 Great Plains area during the later 'SO's. Accord- 

 ing to Payne, the crops of 1889 weje very good; in 

 1890, less so; in 1891, better: in 1892 such immense 

 crops were raised that the settlers spoke of the 

 section as God's country ; in 1893, there was a par- 

 tial failure, and in 1894 the famous complete failure, 

 which was followed in 189.5 b,v a partial failure. 

 Since that time fair crops have been produced an- 

 nually. The dry years of 1893-1895 drove most 



