112 



DRY FARMING CONGRESS. 



we have been told, nowadays, by the experiment station, that the nnra- 

 ber of seeds in a given quantity of wheat are so much. It is almost 

 impossible to give any rule. The same quantity of seed, for instance, 

 could not be sown to advantage in Juab as in Iron county, where the 

 precipitation is not the same. And there is a difference in the number 

 of kernels in the same quantity of wheat of from twenty to twenty-five 

 per cent. So that in Iron county a man seeding three pecks might be 

 seeding a great deal more than the dry farmer in Juab county. It is not 

 a matter that can be worked out very easily. If we follow the suggestion 

 given by Prof. Jardine, and a very excellent suggestion, which is that 

 the farmers of the section, this intermountain region, shall select one 

 variety of wheat — select a variety which excels for our purposes, and 

 establish this, then it should be an easy matter to lay down the amount 

 of seed that ought to be sown in this region. Deep seeding, and seeding 

 with a drill, and putting it down where the result is found, are the means 

 by which we have been able to succeed in dry farming in this state. 



Last night I said I believed that the matter of harvesting must be 

 a matter of co-operation. I believe that the dry farmer, above all other 

 men — above all other lines of agriculture — wants to co-operate, because 

 it requires expensive machinery if we are going to reduce the cost of 

 harvesting this grain to the lowest possible limit. There must be no 

 division fences. The fences must be torn down, if we are going to dry 

 farm at a profit, and a man should start in and go right through his own 

 farm and his neghbors' farms, then they want to get together and buy a 

 machine which will most economicallj^ put that crop on the market — 

 a combined harvester. Combined headers and threshers in use in this 

 -western part of the United States have been demonstrated to be a success 

 without any question today, and the cost of harvesting grain has been 

 reduced from $1.25 and $1.50 to 60c and 75c per acre. And I say we 

 cannot afford, under this movement that is coming in this state, in this 

 section, in harvesting our grain to follow the old methods. AVe want to 

 throw down the division fence and put on the combined harvester and 

 thresher and thus put the wheat on the market at the least possible ex- 

 pense. 



I just want to say a word or two in regard to selection and variety. 

 We in this state, as said this afternoon, grow great varieties of wheat. 

 The people in the western part of the state cling tenaciousl}^ to the 

 Droubay; our people in Juab County are emphatically in favor of a 

 wheat known as Koffoid wheat; in Cache County the Gold Coin, and 

 some others favor growing the Lofthouse. In that section of the state 

 which is the pioneer in arid farming — that is in recent times — Davis County, 

 I believe, is the pioneer of this state in recent times — and in Cache County 

 the}' use the Lofthouse and Gold Coin wheat. We want the arid farmers 

 of the state to get together and adopt the best variet}^ of wheat, and let 

 us grow that particular variety, if we can be convinced that there is a 

 variety that is preferable to tlic one we are now growing. The question 

 of variety of wheat we will select will depend upon scientific basis. Our 



