34 



DRY FARMING CONGRESS. 



and best effort of the intelligent, thoughtful and determined men who will 

 constitute the second session of the Trans-Missouri Dry Farming Congress 

 this month. 



I send you greeting. The western fourth of my own State is vitally 

 interested in this great project. The Almighty never made a more won- 

 derful land or a richer soil, and I have always contended that He makes 

 no mistakes; that the needed elements would sometime be had to make 

 this part of our State, like similar lands elsewhere, sometime blossom as 

 the rose. Dry farming will help mightily. 



Regretting more than I can tell you my inability to attend personally, 

 believe me when I say that my heart will be with you and that I look for 

 large results from the deliberations of the Congress. 



(Applause.) Cordially yours. 



E. W. HOCH. 



CFI AIRMAN DERN: We also have a letter here from Prof. E. A. 

 Burnett, of Lincoln, Nebraska, which will be read by Lieutenant-Governor 

 Burrell, of Idaho. Gentlemen, Lieutenant Burrell, of Idaho. (Applause.) 



Lincoln, Neb., Jan. 11, 1908. 

 Mr. Fisher Harris, President of the Trans-Missouri Dry Farming Con- 

 gress, Salt Lake City, Utah. 



My Dear Sir: — At the request of Chancellor Andrews I am writing to 

 acknowledge your kind letter of the 7th inst., with suggestion that the 

 Chancelloi* offer an address at the meeting of the Trans-Missouri Dry 

 Farming Congress to be held in your city on the 22nd to 26th inst. 



Dr. Andrews wishes me to express to you his very high appreciation 

 of the work which this Congress can do in helping to develop the great 

 semi-arid areas through the application of scientific methods to the pro- 

 duction of the soil. The extent to which production can thus be increased 

 .can of course only be determined by careful trials in which the Experiment 

 Stations of the country should take a leading part. If even a small portion 

 of the area which is now used purely for pasture purposes can be brought 

 under the plow and be made to produce forage and other crops so that 

 these regions will support an agricultural population, the work of your asso- 

 ciation will be most fruitful. 



My belief is that this "question is of such national importance in con- 

 nection with the settlement of the great arid West that national aid to 

 investigate these problems should be generously given, and that a period 

 of careful investigation of these regions should precede the period of active 

 settlement. The occupation of hitherto unoccupied lands, the opening up 

 for settlement of great areas of country which have hitherto had small 

 economic value, is as surely a national problem as the question of the 

 forestation of waste areas or the preservation of forest areas which are 

 still a part of the public domain. It seems to me that this question stands 

 out clear and distinct as separate from the general question of the pro- 

 motion of agriculture in the settled regions of the country, and should 

 be joined with the question of the reclamation of ar'd lands through irriga- 

 tion, now receiving the support of the national government. 



