42 



DRY FARMING CONGRESS. 



cursions, so that the people farther away could come in and see for them- 

 selves what these farms were doing. They did even more than that — when 

 they could not get men to come to the farms to see what the possibilities 

 of arid farming were, they took the farms, or as much of them as they 

 could take, to the State Fair, and exhibited there the products of these 

 farms, before thousands and thousands of people, that they might know the 

 possibilities of arid farming. It was a great success. It lent enthusiasm to 

 the movement. 



Let us for a few minutes view it from its standpoint of advantage to 

 the arid farmer himself. By establishing these farms the farmer himself 

 was able to go and see a farm that had been carried on under definite 

 plans and scientific principles, and he could get results that he knew were 

 the results of these experiment stations; they were not the figures given 

 out by land-boomers and real estate men; they were thoroughly worked 

 out scientific statements, upon which he could depend. Such things as that 

 cause confidence, and that is the first requisite of success in anything 

 you are inviting people to invest their money in. They got even more than 

 that. The}^ saw tests of the different crops, the different ways of handling the 

 soil, the different ways of handling these crops. I cannot go into that side of 

 the subject, because I would be trampling on the ground of many who are to 

 follow me in speaking to thjs convention. But it was a demonstration in 

 more than one way. The success of the different processes could be ex- 

 plained to them, and they could go and see for themselves. And as I said 

 in the beginning, it was of immense benefit to the dry farmer himself; but 

 the benefit to the state was even greater than that to the dry farmer. The 

 result of these demonstrations has been, as President Paxman told 3'ou, 

 that we have had a wonderful increase in the sale of that land, which has 

 brought a large revenue to this state — land that has been before considered 

 worthless. That has been only a fraction, however, of the material gain to 

 the state. The land has been sold and is now owned by the people, and is 

 subject to taxation, and from this year, or from the year in vvdiich it was 

 bought, on and on, and on, forever, there will be coming back to the 

 state the increased revenue in the form of taxes on that land. That is not 

 all. Every time that you establish an acre of dry farming land you take 

 the burden off at least half an acre of irrigated land of producing wheat. 



I remember well that when Dr. Widtsoe and Professor Merrill were 

 going out over this state, preaching the gospel of arid farming, they were 

 down in a country town one year talking, or rather reiterating the prophecy 

 3'ou have heard so many times, and which you will see fulfilled, and that is 

 that within ten years from the establishment of our arid farms that the 

 wheat from the state of Utah will not be raised on irrigated land, but on 

 arid farms, and I remember there was an old man back in the audience 

 who seemed to be troubled — more than troubled — he was highly indignant. 

 He said, "I have been raising wheat here or forty years, and now you fel- 

 lows, you big farmers — you new-fangled farmers, are coming down here 

 and you will start this arid farming business, and you will raise so much 



