DRY FARMING CONGRESS. 



135 



to the Utah soil, consequently our experience would not amount to much 

 in getting at the best basis for handling j'our soil. 



Just a word as to the moisture conservation on the range. I don't 

 know whether 3'ou have much pasture land, that is, rough land that cannot 

 be farmed, that will always be range land or not, but we have. We have 

 possibly an area of 20,000,000 acres, estimating it broadly, that will always 

 be range land, and that is an area getting along prett3^ nearly as large as 

 the state of Iowa. The state of Iowa has only 26,000,000 acres in it, and 

 we have an area going on five-sixths of that that will always be range 

 land. We made a determination on a piece of range. We had a little 

 piece that had been fenced, not handled with any particular care, on a 

 homestead lot, a piece that had been ranged everj^ ye3.r by the sheep that 

 came along, and cattle, and we found that taking the season over there 

 was an average of about four per cent more moisture in the piece inside 

 of the fence than there was outside of the fence, where the grass was 

 very much shorter. There was more grass getting awa}^ with that moist- 

 ure on the inside than on the outside. We frequently hear men say our 

 seasons are changing and things getting dryer because certain springs 

 they have never known to be dry in the last thirty or iortf years are dr}^ 

 now. I believe that because of removing the grass from the range much 

 of the water has gone down the creeks instead of being held by the grass 

 and sinking into the soil, will explain in part why the springs are drying 

 up. I believe the proposition of so handling the range as to hold the 

 moisture is an important thing. That is, the proposition of handling the 

 range a section at a time and allowing the other section for the grass 

 to grow up for the purpose of holding the moisture and allowing it to 

 penetrate into the soil instead of running off is one question that is im- 

 portant in areas where we have as much rain to deal with as we will 

 always have. 



Dr. Brooks will present, at a later meeting, his observations on the 

 conservation of moisture — his observations made on many stations 

 through the Great Plains area. He can give you much more data than 

 I have been able to give you. This question will receive fuller discussion 

 later. The point I wish to make, and the point our experiments would 

 place before us as important, is the fact that the dry farmer — that there 

 are wa3'S for the dry farmer to fortify himself for the dr}^ years — always 

 for the succeeding year. And I believe that as a judicious matter at the 

 present time the best we know of is summer fallowing. I believe there 

 are others we may have to include, that are being investigated, but at 

 the present time summer fallowing is the method best known for fortif}-- 

 ing for the succeeding 3-ear. I believe whatever method you take up 

 that is one of the things the dry farmer will have to look out for. I 

 thank you. (Applause.) 



MR. ELDREDGE, of Utah: You spoke of an experiment on the 

 farm. I would like to ask you to what point of the compass does your 

 land slope? 



PROF. ATKINSON: You ask about the fall and spring plowing? 



