8 



DRY FARMING CONGRESS. 



thrive on well-filled pockets and well-occupied time. The anarchist is 

 usually idle or needy or both. 



The more men and women there are in a community who own their 

 homes, till their own land, raise their own stock, and .train their own 

 children, the stronger and better will that community be. We are there- 

 fore under lasting obligation to those who show us how to produce good 

 harvests on arid land, and to those who legislate to make the settling of 

 such land possible. As a result of the work of this Congress, supple- 

 mented by the wise acts we hope the national Congress will pass for our 

 benefit, we expect to see homes made on arid wastes for teeming mil- 

 lions. 



I do not know just what progress dry farming is making in the states 

 and territories. I suppose you will be officially informed as to that. I 

 was greatly impressed with its possibilities when I stood last summer on 

 a large plain in central Utah, on which within the memory of man noth- 

 ing had - been raised but sage brush and sand-storms, and saw the first 

 combined harvester and thresher imported into the inter-mountain coun- 

 try cut and thresh a splendid crop of dry land wheat. (Applause.) And I 

 thought of the hundreds of thousands of acres of just such land that I had 

 seen scorched and blistered by the sun, yet bearing as evidence of fer- 

 tility gray shrubs as large as trees. And I am sure that with proper 

 methods and thorough training almost innumerable dependent families 

 can soon be made prosperous on this land, and the state and nation be 

 immensely enriched. I think that time is at hand for Utah and for all the 

 West. 



From the standpoint of one who has not made a technical study of 

 the subject, I can see two great agencies by which extended success is 

 to be achieved. One is the scientific application of preserving moisture; 

 the other the development of plants adapted to arid' soils. These prob- 

 lems are being successfully solved by experiment stations and the men 

 connected therewith, and other scientists. It may be of interest to the dele- 

 gates to know that the Utah Legislature, in its recent session, passed meas- 

 ures providing for experiments in procuring water on dry farms for 

 culinary purposes, and in ascertaining the best methods of preserving 

 moisture, selecting seed, enriching soils, etc. We are on the threshold of 

 this great work; and no man can even imagine in his heart the riches we 

 shall find on entering the door. 



People were once afraid of men increasing so rapidly that the earth 

 could not sustain them. There appears to l)e no danger of this as long as 

 men are found who by the improvement of one plant, the potato, can in- 

 crease the value of its annual yield in this country alone by millions of 

 dollars; who can evolve plants that will flourish in the most sterile and for- 

 bidding wastes. Such work is wonderful; akin to the miraculous giving 

 of manna and water in the desert to the cliildrcn of Israel. These things 

 have been done. I don't know what ma}^ be done in the future. I do not 

 fix bounds to the possibilities of modern science. 



