38 



DRY FARMING CONGRESS. 



CHAIRMAN DERN: I have another letter here from one I am sure 

 you will like to hear from, which I have been requested to read at this 

 session. You will learn who it is when I have finished reading it and an- 

 nounce the name. 



Washington, D. C, Jan. 17, 1908. 

 Hon. Fisher Harris, President Trans-Missouri Dry Farming Congress, 

 Salt Lake City, Utah. 

 Dear Mr. Harris: — I am in receipt of your letter of January 4, 1908, en- 

 closing the official call for the second session of the Trans-Missouri Dry 

 Farming Congress, to be held in Salt Lake City, Utah, January 23rd to 26th, 

 1908. 



I regret that it will be impossible for me to be present; nothing would 

 give me more pleasure than to attend the Congress and to participate in 

 its deliberations, for I consider the subject of dry farming one of the 

 greatest, if not the greatest, means of advancing America's undeveloped 

 natural resources and for providing homes for millions of her people. 

 Under the improved plan of dry farming the greater part of the arid lands 

 of the West can be reclaimed. The future supply of cereals grown in this 

 country should be on dry farm lands, and I believe that millions of 

 acres of lands in many of the western States, now considered absolutely 

 worthless, will in the near future be in great part the granaries of the 

 United States. 



It is fitting indeed that the second session of the Congress should be 

 held in Utah, and through you. its president, I send greetings. As early 

 as 1870 the first systematic dry farming occurred in Cache Valley, near 

 Logan, Utah. The first attempts resulted in failure, but not many years 

 passed until enough had been learned to justify a continuance and an exten- 

 sion of this class of cultivation. The Twelfth Census gives us some idea of 

 the rapid growth of dry farming in Cache county. We find that the total 

 acreage of crops grown in 1899 by irrigation was 58,658 acres, while the 

 total acreage in specified crops for the same year was nearly twice that 

 area; thus for that year the acreage farmed without irrigation nearly equalled 

 the irrigated acreage. I believe that to-day there is more dry farmed 

 land in Cache county than irrigated land. What has been done in this 

 regard in Cache county can be done in nearly every county in Utah, and I 

 might say in nearly every western state. 



The fact that the Legislature of Utah has made direct appropriation 

 to establish and maintain experiment farms for Working out scientifically 

 the best methods of tillage and rotation of crops, shows the importance of 

 dry farming as a factor in the development of the State. Six such farms 

 have been established in different parts of the State, each of which 

 contains fort}^ acres of land and is equipped with the necessary machinery 

 and is well fenced. I hope in the near future to see placed on these experi- 

 ment farms other , improvements such as buildings, live stock, etc. These 

 farms will no doubt solve many of the problems touching dry farming and 

 will prove of inestimable value to the people as a whole. 



