86 



DRY FARMING CONGRESS. 



If all that some claim for dry farming is true, that kind of farming 

 needs no special help from the railroad in the development. Lands that 

 jaeld annually $20.00 per acre do not need the help of the railroads to 

 sell such lands at $10 an acre. Lands that yield that amount each year 

 for two or three years and then yield practically nothing for two or three 

 years more, need help in their sale and settlement, but it is a sure thing 

 that the railroad must be very careful what it does or says toward the set- 

 tlement of such lands. The railroads, of course, have a mutual interest 

 with the community in settling it up, in its prosperity and in its poverty. 

 It is idle here to talk of what the railroad has done in settling the west, 

 and it can, of course, be expected to continue helping in that work, just 

 as honestly and safely as it can do so. The west cannot afford to have 

 one single broken-down and impoverished settler turned back to the east 

 again. The west cannot profit from any premature ripening of the truths 

 of dry farming. The truths of dry farming must be of slow development, 

 and cannot be known except after a number of years of experience by the 

 scientist and by many years of study by the farmers and settlers. We 

 have seen the bad effects of a too rapid settlement of the western prairies; 

 those owning dry areas will make more money from them, and the states 

 in which those dry areas are located will draw into their midst a better 

 class of farmers by going slow with the dry farming idea, instead of 

 going too fast with it, thus inducing many to try it and fail, because such 

 failure from year to year will be exactly the thing that will lower the 

 selling prices of these areas, and keep a higher class of farmers from 

 moving in. 



The railroads want to see the dry farmer succeed, his success is their 

 success. To be assured of success I think the dry farmer should take with 

 him to his farm the idea that he must also engage in live stock, dairying and 

 the raising of poultry. 



In conclusion let me offer a few remarks which I consider pertinent 

 to the question, but outside of the subject assigned me, which represent 

 only my individual views. The relation of the Government to the actual 

 settler is of vital interest to the dry farmer. In all of the states except 

 Nebraska where homestead lands may be had, the settlers can only file 

 on 160-acre homesteads, while in former times when the Missouri and 

 , iMississippi valleys were being settled and where the rainfall is plentiful, 

 the settler could take up 160 acres under the pre-emption law, could file on 

 160 acres under the homestead law, and take up another 160 acres under 

 the timber-culture law; three quarter sections or 480 acres under the three 

 acts, at a total money cost of approximately $225. Aside from the pre- 

 emption, homestead and timber culture laws, we had in early days lands 

 that were known as ''offered" lands, where township after township was 

 set aside and offered for sale at public auction, the practice being that 

 individuals could buy these lands at $1.25 per acre. To ni}- personal know- 

 ledge a large percentage of the land in eastern Nebraska was disposed of 

 by the government in this way. The government land in Missouri today 

 can be bought outright. It appears to me of the greatest importance that 



