130 



DRY FARMING CONGRESS. 



Some of our yields, taken in the light of the amount of rainfall in 

 the past season, would indicate that the amount of water used was not 

 so great. However, our season was cooler and the evaporation lower, 

 and a thing of this kind, it seems to me, ought to be looked into for 

 many 3'-ears before we can come to definite conclusions on it. As I said, 

 the experience we had at our Montana station this year would indicate 

 that the amount of water required for crops is not so great as that even 

 in Wisconsin. However, I do not offer this as a conclusion. The season 

 was a little cooler and consequentl}' I don't wish you to take any results 

 I have given, because the results of succeeding years at our station 

 may be entirely different from the results this year. But from experi- 

 ments so far in that section we are not in position to say just how- 

 much water it will take to grow a certain amount of crop. For instance, 

 the ground we broke year before last and seeded last fall — broke in the 

 spring of 1906 and seeded the fall of 1906 — we grew on that ground 

 59 bushels of Turkey Red wheat to the acre, in addition to the straw. 

 To account for this in inches of rainfall would be rather difficult on any 

 basis we have yet devised. ]\Iy point is it is a little hard to say definitely. 

 Possibly south of IMontana it would take more water, and possibl} in 

 different ^ections it would vary. I know in different sections of the 

 state, and on different sides of the range it will vary greatly. That is a 

 problem we must solve before we can say definitely just how much water 

 it takes to produce plants under the different conditions. 



Those who do not believe that the dry farming movement is des- 

 tined to become a success and to reclaim for market a large agricultural 

 area, and w-ho wish that it would not, say, "Just wait until you get one 

 of those dry years." To the Montana farmers they say, "Just wait until 

 you get another year like 1904 or 1905 and we will see this dry farming 

 business going up in smoke." For that reason I believe that the farmers — 

 while I am as optimistic as others, and believe that the dry farming 

 business is destined to be a success — when they have learned the different 

 methods of handling the soil and crops, I believe we will have a univer- 

 sally successful dry farming practice. But, nevertheless, we do get dry 

 years, and I believe that one of the points the dry farmers should look 

 to and have in mind is to fortify himself each year for a succeeding dry 

 year. In ]Montana we do get some years drier than others. Two-thirds 

 of our rainfall comes during the latter part of April, through May and 

 June and the first part of July. Sometimes that is very fortunate. That 

 is the growing season. If it is particularly heavy in June it will pretty 

 nearly carry out crops through the ordinary year, but that is not always 

 the case. I believe one thing a farmer should have in mind in his system 

 of moisture conservation is to fortify himself for the succeeding year; 

 so conduct himself that he is not liable to lose out entirely any year. 



Beginning the first of April and ending the last of October this 

 3^car we have made moisture determinations once every week on soils 

 handled in several different ways. We found this spring, in making our 

 determinations at the beginning of the season on a plat of land that had 



