DRY FARMING CONGRESS 



159 



In the Great Basin, which lies between the Rockies and the Sierra 

 ISTevada mountains, there are millions of acres of good, fertile land which 

 today is raising nothing of any economic value. It is raising large crops 

 of sage brush, large crops of sun flowers and other weeds, and I believe 

 that it is a fact that where these crops grow wheat and other arid farm crops 

 ■of economic value might just as well be grown, and the state and the people 

 who raise these crops would be that much better off. I believe that it 

 will not be very many years before most of this land which is now lying 

 idle will come under cultivation to do man's bidding and bring forth an 

 abundance of the beauties and fruits of the field. There are thousands 

 of acres, of course, that we know can not come under the irrigation canal. 

 These thousands and millions of acres will have to be cultivated, and they 

 cannot be cultivated except b}^ scientific investigations and the application 

 of those scientific principles upon these lands. It has often been said 

 that not many years hence in the west all of the cereals and other extensive 

 crops will be grown upon the arid lands, while the irrigated lands will 

 be devoted to the production of more intensive crops. This statement 

 is being verified year by year. 



Glancing back over the pages of time we see that where the Great 

 Basin now lies there was once a monstrous lake, dashing its waves against 

 the mountain tops, washing the soil from this mountain and that, de- 

 positing it upon the botom of the lake, hundreds of feet below. These 

 dashings and washings have gone on 'for almost countless ages. Year by 

 year the soil in the bottom of the lake grew thicker and thicker. Finally 

 the waters disappeared and these vast stretches of fertile land are the re- 

 sult. So that we are assembled today upon the bottom of that vast lake 

 and upon that slowly formed fertile soil. 



As a general thing the soils of the Great Basin are very deep for 

 the very reasons that they have been formed as I have told you. Not 

 only are they very deep, but most of them are quite retentive of moisture. 

 In selecting soil for an arid farm of course we know that we should choose 

 a soil that is quite retentive of moisture. But I believe that above that 

 we should choose a deep soil rather than the kind of soil, for, if we have a 

 deep soil, even though it be somewhat less retentive of moisture we can 

 cultivate it in such a manner as to store the moisture there to a consider- 

 able depth, and I believe that is better than a retentive soil which is poorly 

 cultivated. The rainfall, though scant, if controlled and made to do the 

 bidding of man, is sufficient for the production of fair crops. 



Wheat has always been and perhaps for a number of years to come 

 will be the leading arid farm crop. Utah, in 1907, on 109,000 acres of 

 arid land, grew 1,630.000 bushels, or something more than 15 bushels per 

 acre, of good marketable wheat. This, however, is only a beginning of 

 the great possibilities of arid farming in the state of Utah and in the Great 

 Basin. The total amount of land tilled in Utah at the present time is only 

 3.3 per cent of the total area of the state, so that we have yet vast areas of 

 humid irrigated as well as arid lands which are yet undeveloped. For the 

 most successful growing of wheat on arid lands I believe that it is abso- 



