386 DRY-FARMING 



tant one in the near future. This is one of the great 

 dry-farm districts of the world. 



The Great Basin 



The Great Ba.sin includes Nevada, the western 

 half of Utah, a small part of southern Oregon and 

 Idaho, and also a part of Southern California. It is 

 a great interior basin with all its rivers draining into 

 salt lakes or dry sinks. In recent geological times 

 the Great Basin was filk^d with water, forming the 

 great Lake Bonneville which drained into the 

 Columbia River. In fact, the Great Basin is made 

 up of a series of great valleys, with very level floors, 

 representing the old lake bottom. On the bench 

 lands are seen, in man}- places, the effects of the wave 

 action of the ancient lake. The chief drj'-farm crop 

 of this district is wheat, liut the other grains, includ- 

 ing corn, are also produced successfully. Other 

 crops have l)een tried with fair success, but not on a 

 commercial scale. Grapevines have been made to 

 grow quite successfully without irrigation on the 

 bench lands. Several small orchards bearing lus- 

 cious fruit are growing on the deep soils of the Great 

 Basin without the artificial ajiplication of water. 

 Though the first dry-farming by modern peoples 

 was probably practiced in the Great Basin, yet the 

 area at present under cultivation is not large, pos- 

 siblv a little more than four hundred thousand acres. 



