DRY FARMING CONGRESS. 



35 



I very much regret that I shall be unable to be present at your meet- 

 ing on account of the public meetings to be held at our institution at the 

 same date, a copy of which program I herewith enclose. 



I expect the University will be represented at this meeting by Mr. 

 W. P. Snyder, the Superintendent of our Sub-Station farm at North 

 Platte, Nebraska, where we are studying the questions of agriculture 

 under semi-arid conditions in an effort to make more available the area^ 

 of pasture land in the western portion of our State which have hitherto 

 been almost undeveloped as a farming region. 



I am very truly yours, 



E. A. BURNETT, 

 Director Nebraska Agricultural Experiment Station. 

 CHAIRMAN DERN: To show you, fellow delegates, that our gov- 

 ernment at Washington takes a live interest in our deliberations and our 

 work, and the ultimate success of it, the Secretary of Agriculture, the Hon. 

 James Wilson, has addressed a letter to the Congress, which will be read 

 by Mr. Burns of Colorado. (Applause.) 



Washington, D. C, January 17, 1908. 

 Mr. Fisher Harris, President Trans-Missouri Dry Farming Congress, Salt 

 Lake City, Utah. 



Dear Sir: — In compliance with your request of January 6th, I send you 

 the following remarks on our investigations in dry-land agriculture. 



The investigations in dry-land agriculture in the Great Plains area con- 

 sist of a thoroughly systematized set of experiments in crop rotations and 

 cultivation methods, carried on at twelve stations in the Great Plains. 



Eight of these stations are in co-operation with the experiment stations 

 of the states of Montana, North and South Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas. 

 Four, located at Belle Fourche, South Dakota; Akron, C9lorado; Dalhart 

 and Amarillo, Texas, are independent of the state experiment stations. 



These experiments are so followed as to thoroughly test the various 

 agricultural practices now in vogue in the area for the conservation of 

 moisture and production of crops under semi-arid conditions, as well as 

 many that have recently been devised or proposed by practical farmers and 

 scientific experts. This is the first attempt to get actual quantitative and 

 comparative results on a comprehensive scale, and it is believed that the 

 work will prove of inestimable value in forwarding the development of 

 agriculture in the semi-arid lands east of the Rocky Mountains. 



Dry-Land Agriculture in Texas. 



The investigations in dry-land agriculture at San Antonio, Texas, are 

 very similar in their general nature to those conducted in the Great Plains 

 area, but as San Antonio lies at a much lower altitude as well as at a lower 

 latitude, the character of the crops grown is very different from that of 

 the Great Plains area. At San Antonio cotton is the important crop; in the 

 Great Plains area it is wheat that ranks as the principal crop. No effort 

 has been made, in view of these facts, to bring about a very close co-relation 

 of the work of this station and those in the Great Plains area. 



