DRY FARMING CONGRESS. 



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would be plenty. But I advise a man to take no less than 300 acres, and 

 if he can get 320 by filing on it, and if this law passes it will be just right 

 for the dry farmer, and as he gradually learns dry farming in three years 

 from the time he started he can manage 300 acres just as easy as he 

 could 100 in the start. Last year I had in 800 acres of ground — 815 acres — 

 and all the hands that worked that land were four for the 815 acres. I 

 think part of the season there was one little boy added to the number — 

 three men and a young man about 17 and then a little boy helped part of 

 that time. And we had over 20,000 bushels of wheat, or bushels of grain 

 altogether. We had some barley and some oats planted. We got four 

 cents per bushel more than the regular price for our wheat and sold it 

 to a gentleman in Salt Lake. 



Now I don't back down in telling people who have irrigated their 

 farms, if you will quit irrigating I will promise you to raise more wheat 

 and better wheat than you possibly can with irrigation. (Applause.) I 

 can raise more wheat and better wheat than you can with a great deal 

 less labor on my dry farm than you can on your irrigated farm. 



Thoms Lisher, of Wellsville, told us just how he got along. He told 

 us about manuring his land, and about the cost, and had it all on paptir, 

 and showed that he had cleared some $14.00 per acre, and he raised a 

 little over 50 bushels of irrigated wheat on a piece of land, I think of 

 40 acres — I think that is the quantity of acres, and he told how much time 

 he had taken, and the cost of plowing, harrowing, etc., and hauling ma- 

 nure, and he hauled the manure for one dollar per load, and distributed 

 it on the land. I told him that on 110 acres that same year — this was this 

 same season — we had 40 bushels and 8 pounds on that 110 acres. I told 

 him we had raised 40 bushels and 8 pounds on that piece of land, and 

 that had been farmed for the last 40 years. It was the first piece I had 

 broken, 40 years ago, and it had never had any manure, and it raised more 

 that year than it ever had before, but we only crop it every other year. 

 We summer fallow, one year and crop the next, and if we possibly 

 can we plow it in the fall, and as a general thing we cut our stubble as 

 high as possible, say two feet high, then we turn that under and there 

 is food in that stubble to make grain. And as soon as the fall rains and 

 spring Tains come it falls upon that ground and it goes down and the 

 next spring as soon as it is dry enough to work we put our discs to work 

 and we work that over on top and that conserves the moisture in the 

 ground below, and we continue to work it all summer to keep the weeds 

 down. We don't let weeds grow on the summer fallow. We keep it as 

 clean as possible. Just before sowing we put our leveler on and level it 

 all off smooth 



MR. WHITE, of Beaver, Utah: One question I would like to ask 

 right here. Do you find it injurious to pasture your summer fallowed 

 land? 



MR. FARRELL: No, sir; not if you don't put cattle on when it is 



wet. 



A DELEGATE: What was the question? 



