DRY FARMING CONGRESS. 



85 



interests in some localities saved the country. The railroad can only safely 

 advertise for the future what has successfully stood the t^st over a 

 stretch of years of all kinds of weather. 



In these days what the railroad says to intending settlers is listened 

 to and largely believed, and the destinies of thousands of families have 

 been largely influenced by railroad literature.' Therefore, the railroads 

 must not be expected to say one word more than the truth about dry 

 farming, or wet farming, or irrigation, nor can it encourage any land 

 agent along its lines in saying or promising what the railroad cannot 

 safely say. 



Much of the development of the west in the last five years has, of 

 course, been along the frontiers, and on so-called dry lands, as dry lands 

 and irrigated lands are about all that are left within reasonable prices for 

 the settler; along the Burlington's lines in Nebraska, Eastern Colorado, 

 Wyoming and Northwest Kansas there has been an increase in the past 

 three years of new acreage of approximately two million acres of western 

 lands, with ninety per cent of this acreage on so-called dry lands. -This 

 great increase of wealth and population has been brought about during 

 the past three years or four years, when as we all know, for the last 

 five years the far west has been favored with a bountiful and most extra- 

 ordinary moisture covering the great plateaus and slopes east of the 

 Rocky Mountains clear through to the Mississippi Valley. The dry farming 

 idea therefore has had a wonderful boost to this extent. In fact, the dry 

 farming idea, to a considerable extent, has not been dry farming, as the 

 greatest apostles of dry farming so understand it. Therefore, for the 

 bulk of the settlement of the west during the last five years the dry farm- 

 ing ideas have not yet received a thorough test, and until we go through 

 a period of two, three and four years of dry times, such as those at all 

 familiar with the west know we must go through every so often, will 

 the true value of the dry farming idea be known and understood. And 

 that is the one great reason why the railroad must be cautious and careful 

 as to the amount and manner of exploiting the successful tillage of the 

 dry western prairies. 



The day of fooling the intending settler has gone, or should be gone. 

 Western railroads have enough population along their lines today, fol- 

 lowing the entire range of methods of farming, so that they can afford 

 to wait upon honest truths for development. Twenty-five years ago, and 

 even later, perhaps (remember I wasn't in the business then) the need 

 of filling up the sparsely settled west was so great that exploitation was 

 careless, if not more or less untruthful; and any means were employed 

 to bring settlers out west. And when some years later thousands of those 

 settlers had to pull up and go back to the east, the thoughtful railroad 

 man realized then the need of saying only the truth in the future, and, 

 therefore, those who firmly believe in the profits from dry farming must 

 understand how careful the railroads must be in exploiting any kind of 

 farming until there can be no doubt whatever of its permanent value. 



