48 DRY FARMING CONGRESS. 



off to the theatre and places of amusement, or taking in the city tonight, 

 and probably others have more legitimate excuses. But, at any rate, i\ 

 seems that we want to get what we can out of this convention, and we 

 can only do it by talking freely. There are a good many things that can 

 be talked over in an interesting way. I know I would like to get a good 

 deal of information, if I could get it. While I know that deep plowing 

 and cultivation, thorough cultivation, cuts a big figure in dry farming, 

 there are some other conundrums that are bothering dry farmers, and one 

 of them has been the high price of help, and in fact the scarcity of 

 help at high wages, and in consequence of this I know that a good many 

 dry farmers have resorted to steam power and engines, and have had a 

 great deal of trouble with them too. The greatest conundrum in my 

 mind today is the question of power for the working of these dry farms. 

 I have noticed, in looking around a little, in my experience, that the small 

 dry farm is quite successful in some ways. There are a great many small 

 dry farms right around in the central part of Utah — men that dry farm on 

 a small scale, and while they raise fairly good crops, it seems to me they 

 are handicapped. It is hard for them to make a liAang entirely on a small 

 dry farm. The dry farm may be, as suggested, some distance from the 

 irrigated farm, and it is pretty hard work, especially when 3^ou have to 

 go a good ways to get to it. And another thing is water. The water 

 question bothers a great many of them. They can't very well put up a 

 windmill, and have to haul water for their horses, probably, and there is 

 another drawback. And another thing — they are handicapped when it 

 comes to getting any benefit from their pastures from their dry farms. 

 A small farm is hardly worth fencing. As a consequence, dry farming 

 on a large scale is, I have found, the better plan; and in order to do that 

 it is generally necessary to organize companies in order to work on a 

 large scale. There are a great many advantages in working on a large 

 scale. The}^ capnot afford motive power, for they cannot get the right kind 

 of power; that is out of reach and out of the question in the case of a small 

 dry farmer. Another thing. where there is extensive farming, 

 on a large scale, there is a fine opportunity for pasturing, and pasturing, in 

 my estimation at least, is one-third of dry farming, and I have followed 

 it up a little in my way. I have seen a good many dry farm.ers setting 

 fire to their straw and burning it up to get it out of the way. To my 

 mind that is a great loss, and still that is about all a small dry farmer can 

 do. He can't very well do otherwise than burn it, unless he has got cattle 

 to eat it up. I find that where you can use it for cattle, where you can 

 get water, have a place large enough so that you can afford to get water, 

 and use your straw for cattle and sheep and hogs and so forth, that the 

 pasture means about one-third of it. I have found in my experience in dry 

 farming that the profit end of my dry farming comes out of the stoi:k 

 raising, because I make good use of the straw in that way, and I raise a 

 good many sheep and hogs. But that can't be done on a small scale; 

 you have to have a large farm to do it, and it is rather burdensome and 

 difficult for one person to do it alone, consequently the co-operative sys- 



