DRY FARMING CONGRESS. 



27 



avert much danger that otherwise would imperil this wonderfully pro- 

 ductive industry. 



I cannot pass here without giving a meed of praise to the man who 

 has fathered this movement and given us the scientific methods tliat have 

 always proven successful when rightly applied. Simultaneous witli the 

 State proffering its aid that great scientist and apostle of the doctrine of 

 scientific soil culture for the production of profitable crops without arti- 

 ficial irrigation, Dr. John A. Widtsoe (applause) stepped to the public ros- 

 trum and proclaimed the gospel of reclaiming our arid regions by means 

 of scientific soil culture, and the great first impetus given to this move- 

 ment west of the Rocky Mountains is due to this good man's enthusiasm 

 and sound doctrine and the wise leadership he has ever given his disciples. 

 May he live to see the realization of what his prophetic eye has seen in 

 vision — the reclamation of the western region by means of scientific soil 

 culture, and see the happy homes and golden harvests that shall be the 

 heritage of a contented and intelligent people. Arid farmers of Utah will 

 always recognize him as the father of their profession. 



But to return to the subject of the progress made during 1907, it re- 

 flects credit on the movement to report that no less than 50,000 additional 

 acres have been brought under cultivation; fourteen steam and one gasoline 

 plowing outfits have been put to work and farming on a much larger 

 scale has been the result. The one obstacle that confronted the man 

 operating the brush lands (and most of our arid lands are covered with 

 sage brush) was to obtain an implement that he could hitch behind his 

 engine and successfully grub the brush. A number of experiments were 

 made along this line at considerable sacrifice of time and money, with 

 no satisfactory implement resulting. Some grubbers that have been pro- 

 duced have done reasonably good work in some sections, but some machine 

 or tool that will successfully obliterate the brush from our native lands, 

 preparaory to plowing, is now the crying need to more economically 

 subdue the deserts. Will not someone with inventive genius produce us 

 this implement so essential to the future development of our brush lands? 

 Notwithstanding this obstacle the operator has not lacked the nerve to 

 proceed with crude and imperfect implements, and under many difficulties 

 he has done well with his work, and large tracts of brush have disappeared 

 and fields of grain will appear in their stead. Hundreds of thousands of 

 acres have been added to individual holdi-ngs; many new harvesting ma- 

 chines have been installed upon the farms, including the only combination 

 harvester and thresher in the inter-mountain region, and several new large 

 threshing outfits bought expressly for the threshing of dry grain were 

 kept busy during the fall months. The precipitation has been above the 

 average and the yields (except in a few instances where the June frosts 

 did some damage) have been satisfactory and highly remunerative. The 

 markets have been excellent and high prices have prevailed, which with 

 the increased yields because of better methods, have made the arid 

 farmer a very happy man at the close of 1907. 



