114 



DRY FARMING CONGRESS. 



familiar with agriculture in Utah. I have had something to do with it. 

 I never said to the farmers of Utah, or ever advised their abandoning 

 summer fallowing. I said that wherever summer wheat has followed corn 

 or a cultivated crop throughout the United States it has always been 

 found possible to grow equally as good a crop as to summer fallow, even, 

 under the driest conditions. That has never been demonstrated in Utah, 

 to my knowledge, in a series of experiments, and I did not advance these 

 theories. I said. Is it not possible to do this, and I still mean it, so far 

 as results so far obtained go to show. The farmers of Utah are good 

 farmers and I know it, and they all know I know it. (Applause.) I be- 

 lieve in them just as much as any man in Utah. And I claim to be ia 

 Utah man, too. And I am not deriding their system, and I want them ta 

 understand that I will back them up just as long as anyone. I said, Is 

 it not possible to make their lands more profitable; when the lands are 

 becoming more expensive, as settlers are coming into this country from 

 the east, and as our lands advance from $2.50 to $15 and $25 an acre; is 

 it not possible to increase the value of these crops by introducing and 

 rotating corn with the wheat, even though we do not get within two or 

 three bushels as by summer fallowing, will it not increase the profit on 

 the dry farm? I am not deriding the Utah farmer. I say to every Utah 

 farmer here, Stay with your summer fallowing until you find something 

 else that is better. I did not say that summer fallowing was not all right, 

 but I certainly believe that there is a possibility of introducing a system of 

 rotation of crops onto our summer fallowed land, and I wish to take 

 issue with any gentleman — I don't care w^ho he is — whether he is from 

 Utah, from the department or anywhere else — I believe in it; our results 

 prove it. I don't believe — -and if I am mistaken in this I hope someone will 

 correct me — I don't know where Utah has grown for a series of years 

 wheat after a summer fallow and wheat after a rotation of crops on her 

 dry land. Maybe the speaker knows; I don't. I would like to know, 

 if I am mistaken, but I don't think I am. Before sitting down I want to 

 say that I don't want the farmers of Utah to think I am deriding their 

 summer fallowing methods; but I do say that if there is a possibility of 

 getting more returns from our dry land, especially as they become more 

 and more valuable, I believe in trying to accomplish it. I believe in looking 

 to the future and not the present merely. I don't think thirty years is 

 long to look ahead. We have a good, strong, rich land — as rich as any 

 in the world — in the United States. That don't go to say, however, that ' 

 in fifty or a hundred years from now we are going to continue to have it. 

 We are young in Utah, and now we have the time to consider these things, 

 and I will guarantee that every farmer will get just as large returns off 

 of his land if he devotes a little of his time to diversified farming as he 

 would by growing wheat exclusively. (Applause.) 



CHAIRMAN BERN: Prof. Merrill referred to Joshua Salisbury. I 

 am pleased to say that the gentleman is here, looking well and hearty — 

 looking just as well as he used to. He is one of the pioneers, coming 

 here in the sixties. He has followM, to a certain extent, dry land farm- 



