402 DRY-FARMING 



historical time; neither are there ])rotracted dry 

 periods followed by pr(,)tracted wet periods. The 

 fact is, dry and wet years alternate. A succession of 

 somewhat wet years may alternate with a succession 

 of somewhat dry years, but the a^'erage precipitation 

 from decade to decade is "\'er}- nearly the same. 

 True, there will alwa}'s be a dry 3'ear, that is, the 

 driest year of a series of years, and this is the sup- 

 posedly fearful and fateful year of drouth. The busi- 

 ness of the dr}'-farmer is alwa}'s to farm so as to be 

 prepared for this tlriest year whenever it comes. If 

 this be done, the farmer will ahva}-s have a crop : in 

 the wet jTars his cr(_)p will be large ; in the driest year 

 it will be sufficient to sustain him. 



So persistent is the half-express(>d fear that this 

 driest }-ear makes it impossible to rely upon dry- 

 farming as a permanent s}'stem of agriculture that a 

 search has been made for rclialile long records of the 

 production of crops in arid and semiarid regions. 

 Public statements have ]:)een made by many perfectly 

 reliable men to the effect that crops have been pro- 

 duced in diverse sections over long periods of years, 

 some as long as thirty-hve or forty years, without one 

 failure having occurred. Most of these statements, 

 however, have been general in their nature and not 

 accompanied by the exact yields from year to year. 

 Only three satisfactorA^ records have been found in a 

 somewhat careful search. Others no doubt exist. 



