THE HISTORY ON THE GREAT PLAINS 359 



of the discouraged settlers back to humid sections 

 and delayed, by many years, the settlement and 

 development of the western side of the Great Plains 

 area. That these failures and discouragements were 

 due almost entirely to improper methods of soil 

 culture is very evident to the present day student of 

 dry-farming. In fact, from the very heart of the 

 section which was abandoned in 1893-1895 come 

 reliable records, dating back to 1886, which show 

 successful crop production every year. The famous 

 Indian Head experimental farm of Saskatchewan, 

 at the north end of the Great Plains area, has an 

 unbroken record of good crop yields from 1888, and 

 the early '90's were quite as drj^ there as farther 

 south. However, in spite of the vicissitudes of the 

 section, dry-farming has taken a firm hold upon the 

 Great Plains area and is now a well-established prac- 

 tice. 



The curious thing about the development of dry- 

 farming in Utah, California, Washington, and the 

 Great Plains is that these four sections appear to 

 have originated dry-farming independently of each 

 other. True, there was considerable communica- 

 tion from 1849 onward between Utah and California, 

 and there is a possibility that some of the man}^ 

 Utah settlers who located in California brought with 

 them accounts of the methods of dry-farming as 

 practiced in Utah. This, however, cannot be authen- 

 ticated. It is very unlikely that the farmers of 



