66 



DRY FARMING CONGRESS. 



CHAIRMAN DERN: The chair will appoint as the nominating com- 

 mittee, Mr. Burrell, of Idaho; Mr. Root, of Colorado; Mr. Paxman, of 

 Utah; Mr. Buffum, of Wyoming, and Mr. Atkinson, of Montana. 



MR. BURRELL: I believe it would be wise for this nominating com- 

 mittee to meet now. Where would be a convenient office to meet in. 



CHAIRMAN DERN: The committee may meet at once in the resolu- 

 tions committee room- right to the left of the stand. 



MR. BURRELL: I would ask that the committee retire at once. 



CHAIRMAN DERN: I believe it would be a good plan. 



The Congress will now listen to an address by Professor E. C.' Chil- 

 cott, in charge of Office of Dry Land Agriculture, Bureau of Plant Industry, 

 U. S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C, on the subject of 



DRY FARMING— PAST AND FUTURE. 



(By E. C. Chilcott, Agriculturist in Charge.) 



Ladies and Gentlemen: You will remember that I pointed out to you 

 one of the failings of the people from the department — that they talk too 

 much. I have therefore taken the precaution to write down what I want 

 to say to you and shall read a portion of it to you. If I wander off at a 

 tangent someone can call me down. I am liable to do such things. 



Dry Land Agriculture Investigations in the Great Plains Area. 



One year ago we met in the city of Denver on the eastern slope of the 

 Rocky Mountains to inaugurate an experiment. Today we meet on the 

 western slope to analyze the first results of this experiment, which was to 

 determine whether the great diversity of interests concerned in the develop- 

 ment of agriculture without irrigation in the semi-arid portions of the 

 United States could be brought together, harmonized and organized. The 

 large attendance and active interest shown at this meeting gives a most 

 emphatic affirmative answer to the major question involved iij this experi- 

 ment. From now on we are an organization, not an experiment. But this 

 organization must foster and utilize many experiments in order to accom- 

 plish the purpose of the organization. Perhaps the most important experi- 

 ment of all is to determine how best to utilize the vast wealth of experience, 

 theory, hopes, fears, dreams, ambitions, systems, schemes, plans, projects, 

 and investigations that have been or are to be developed and promulgated 

 by the members of this organization. I see before me all sorts and condi- 

 tions of men; men who have theories to sell, and men who have theories to 

 give away; men who are seeking information, and men who are over- 

 burdened with information that they want to impart; men who have land, 

 books, implements and systems to sell, men who are willing to buy all 

 these things if they can be convinced that they are what they are repre- 

 sented to be; men of wide experience representing vast interests; and men of 

 very limited experience with very narrow interests; men who are cocksure 

 that they have solved all the more important problems involved in dry 

 land agriculture, and men who are equally sure that little or nothing has 

 yet been learned concerning some of the great fundamental principles 



