CHAPTER XIX 



THK YEAR OF DltOUTH 



The Shadow of the Year of Drouth still obscures 

 the hope of many a dry -farmer. From the magazine 

 page and the public platform the prophet of evil, 

 thinking himself a friend of humanit}", solemnly warns 

 against the arid region and dry-farming, for the year 

 of drouth, he says, is sure to come again and then will 

 be repeated the disasters of 1893-1895. Beware of 

 the year of drouth. Even successful drj^-farmers who 

 have obtained good crops every year for a generation 

 or more are half led to expect a dry year — one so 

 dry that crops will fail in spite of all human effort. 

 The question is continually asked, "Can crop yields 

 reasonably be expected every year, through a suc- 

 cession of dry years, under semiarid conditions, if 

 the best methods of dry- farming be ].)racticed ? " In 

 answering this question, it may be said at the very 

 beginning, that when the 3'ear of drouth is mentioned 

 in connection with dry-farming, sad reference is al- 

 ways made to the experience on the Great Plains in 

 the early years of the '90's. Now the fact of the 

 matter is, that while the years of 1893, 1894, and 1895 

 were dry years, the only complete failure came in 

 1894. In spite of the improper methods practiced by 



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