DRY- FARMING CONGRESS, WICHITA, 1914 



35 



time that determines the size of the crop. That is the one thing we give 

 over to chance absolutely — the one thing to which we should pay the most 

 attention. With livestock, we can maintain the fertility of the soil for there 

 is no soil that you can take from all the time and give nothing back that 

 will produce good crops. 



Another great thing we have to pay attention to is to the destruction 

 of weeds, for I believe in North Dakota I can safely say that farmers 

 lose not less than 50 million dollars on account of weeds. Not only do they 

 rob the ground of fertility, but they steal the moisture from the plant that 

 needs it and get what they want, and what they have no use for, the 

 plants get. The pig will get in with all four feet and the weed is a kind 

 of a pig so far as the moisture is concerned. I have taken my ten minutes, 

 but I believe that is one thing we should pay attention to in a Dry- 

 Farming Congress of this kind, yet after all it is a few plain, common- 

 sense things that the average farmer understands well if we could only get 

 him to do them, that really counts. Instead of farming so much at a loss, 

 farm one-half as much and farm it twice as well. An old fellow had 1200 

 acres of land and three daughters, and he decided he would farm this land 

 until the first daughter was married, then he would give her one-fourth 

 of it. The first daughter married and he gave her three hundred acres 

 and then he farmed only 900 acres, and he said he made just as much money 

 as he did before. Then the second daughter was married and he gave her 

 her share, and only farmed 600 acres, and he made just as much money as 

 before. Finally, the third daughter was married and he gave her 300 

 acres, which left him only 300 to farm, and he found he made just as much 

 money as he did when he tried to farm the entire 1200 acres! It is all a 

 matter of intelligent work we gut on the soil with a view to conservation, 

 and to kill the weeds that steal the moisture and then, sir, you will find 

 that the regions that are deserts today will produce abundantly and the 

 beautiful homes of the future will come out of the deserts of the present. 



DEAN JARDINE: 



We will now hear from Oklahoma. Is Mr. L. L. Lewis, director of the 

 Oklahoma Experiment Station, present to report? If Oklahoma is not 

 ready to make a report, we will go to Oregon and have Mr. H. D. Scudder, 

 in charge of dry-farming land in that state, make the report. 



Note: By oversight Mr. Scudder's remarks were not taken by the 

 reporter nor manuscript received at the time the Proceedings went to press. 



DEAN JARDINE: 



We will now hear from South Dakota. Dr. A. N. Hume. 



South Dakota 



DOCTOR HUME: 



I might be like President Worst of North Dakota — stay down there 

 and it would probably be just as good a scheme; but the idea is that I 

 want to see you, like the man who had 15 children and brought them all 



