DRY FARMING CONGRESS. 



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necessary. When we realize that, and think of the amount of water 

 that falls, it seems it is incredible. Our precipitation, as I said last night, 

 is, on the average, about 12 inches. I want to repeat the statement, that 

 the average precipitation is 12 inches. In some parts of the state it reaches 

 18 inches. The question -is simply what is the amount of water necessary 

 to produce a certain definite amount of plant substance. An acre ihch of 

 water falling over an acre of ground means something like 113 1-2 tons 

 of water, and 12 acre inches of water is twelve times 113 1-2 tons. It is 

 an easy matter, a simple problem in arithmetic to determine just about 

 how much plant substance can be produced if the average precipitation 

 is 12 inches and each inch means 113 1-2 tons. This matter has all been 

 carefully worked out by our Experiment Station some years ago, and 

 working on this theory as established it was demonstrated it would be 

 absolutely impossible, in Utah, to produce a crop year after year, and 

 for that reason I w^ant to object to the idea that has been advanced here 

 that we need to rotate our crops. If we grow a crop of corn on the 

 land, alternating with wheat, it simply means that that corn is going to 

 take so much moisture out of the land. I want to say that the Utah 

 method of fallowing the land, the practice of summer fallowing is not a 

 question of fertility of soil but simply a question of conservation of 

 moisture. The great problem in Utah in relation to arid farming is the 

 best way of conservation of the moisture we have. That is our problem- 

 It is not a question of the fertility of the soil. We know, for instance, 

 over the state, where crops have been produced for forty to fifty years 

 in succession without any diminution in the yield at all. But the simple 

 problem is this, how can we best grow crops with the amount of moisture 

 we have, and I say that the only practice that can be followed success- 

 fully is the practice of summer fallowing the land. In some parts of the 

 state it might be it is best for the ground to be summer fallowed only 

 once in two years, and in other parts once in three years. In most parts 

 of the state it is best to summer fallow every other year, and for that 

 reason I was glad to see this resolution passed this afternoon. The arid 

 farmer cannot succeed on the same amount of land used by the irrigating 

 farmer, even if his crops were as large, because he requires double the 

 amount of land because of the fact that half of the land must lie idle every 

 year. We have here, in one of the tables spread upon the wall, that 

 idea carried out. It has been demonstrated time and time and again that 

 a yield of 33 bushels of wheat could be produced on land fallowed every 

 other year, and where it was continuously cropped the yield would be 

 cut down to 12, or 13 or 14 bushels, and we were doing double the amount 

 of work required to produce 12 or 13 bushels as required to produce 33 

 bushels. So it has been demonstrated, and it is conceded that our sum- 

 mer fallowing is a matter of preserving the moisture. 



I thoroughly agree with the statement made regarding the advisa- 

 bility of introducing a variety of crops. I don't believe we ought to 

 confine our operations in dry farming to growing wheat, but I do believe 

 that we ought to grow other crops — oats, barley, rye, lucerne, and any 



