DRY-FARMING CONGRESS, WICHITA, 1914 



25 



E. N. Hopkins, editor of Fruit and Farms, Fort Smith. Is Mr. Hopkins 

 present? If he is not here, then California is to be responded to by Pro- 

 fessor John W. Gilmore, Professor of Agronomy, in the University of Cali- 

 fornia at Berkeley. We will pass them for the time. Colorado was to be 

 responded to by Dr. Lory, President of the Colorado Agricultural College, 

 who will be well represented by Mrs. E. T. East, of Denver. 



Colorado 



MRS. EAST: 



Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: It was very unexpected to me 

 that I was to represent our distinguished President of the Agricultural Col- 

 lege, Doctor Lory, and I suggested that there was one of Doctor Lory's 

 assistants, Doctor Gillette, here who would say a word in behalf of Colorado. 

 If I had known I was to be called upon, I should have been glad to gather 

 some of the figures and present some of the advantages of that great com- 

 monwealth to you. As it is I can only give you a few ideas of the width 

 and extent of our resources. 



In a general way, our resources are three: Mining, of which you have 

 all heard; agriculture, of which you are all learning; and manufacturing, 

 which is rapidly coming to the front. Years ago, when Colorado was known 

 only as a mining state, there were many who came to mine and stayed to 

 plow. The man who failed in the mines found there was a rich living for 

 the one who would divert the waters of the rivers and supply the bread 

 for those who were more fortunate in the mines. So agriculture came to 

 the front. 



They said, "It is a wonderful soil if you can just get the water on it," 

 and for a great many years all that was known of farming in Co'orado was 

 the irrigated farm. But, largely through the benefits of this Dry-Farming 

 Congress, the methods of deep tillage and water storage have come to the 

 front and there are at the present time 3 million acres under cultivation, 

 and successful cultivation, by dry-farming methods. We speak of it as non- 

 irrigated methods but it is the dry-farming method nevertheless that has 

 worked the transformation of these 3 million acres. There are many more 

 million acres waiting for the plow and for the man to handle the plow. 



My predecessor spoke of the coming scarcity of homestead land, yet 

 Colorado has 20 million acres open to homestead. Not all of this 20 million 

 acres is good, arable land, as, if it were, you can realize how quickly it 

 would be gone. 



Frequently I have inquiries that say, "How close to Denver could I 

 take up a homestead and could the children walk to school?" I have an 

 inquiry from Boston in which a lady inquired if there were good places 

 to board in Denver and if she would be safe alone and unguarded. That 

 shows perhaps that in America, in the most progressive country in the 

 world, there is a vast ignorance about us. Someone wrote to know about 

 the land near Grand Junction and asked if it were near enough that the 

 children could go to Denver to school! A lady wrote to us asking what car 

 to take to Yellowstone Park and would they have to take a lunch? In the 

 work of the Greater Colorado Bureau, we meet a great deal of this ignor- 



