36 



DRY-FARMING CONGRESS, WICHITA, 1914 



in to see the moose. It is just as important that my moose see your child- 

 ren as that your children see my moose. 



I am glad to be here from South Dakota. We have an exhibit down 

 at the Forum also, although we did not bring nearly everything we could. 

 The fact is we knew Kansas could not hold us if we did, but we brought 

 legumes and alfalfas. We know that we must in South Dakota produce 

 legumes to get the nitrogen that legumes are capable of getting out of the 

 air. Near Aberdeen is a soil which had in it over 6,000 pounds of nitrogen; 

 and right beside it a soil cropped, with less than 5,000 pounds of nitrogen, 

 a loss of something like 1500 pounds, or a loss in 27 years of over 24 per 

 cent, nearly a loss of 1 per cent of the nitrogen per year. 



Now South Dakota soils are fertile. That is not uncommon in the state 

 of South Dakota. The great question with us is the problem of the supply 

 of plant food and also the supply of humus that must be in our soils and 

 that we know our present system of farming is depleting, so we are look- 

 ing ahead in South Dakota, and we were looking ahead when we came down 

 with an exhibit which was representative of one of our problems in South 

 Dakota. 



We raise corn and cane in South Dakota. We raised 72 million bushels 

 of corn in 1912, but South Dakota is not a corn state any more than South 

 Dakota is a wheat state; but corn and wheat and legumes, alfalfa and 

 alfalfa and alfalfa, and still more important, clover, sweet clover, you 

 will see at the exhibit down at the Forum. Some people ask me, "Is sweet 

 clover equally as good as alfalfa, or is it better than alfalfa?" and I always 

 say that both of them are better! 



We are thinking ahead in South Dakota for the pople we have and 

 the people we are going to have. You see the human element sort of 

 creeps in. 



I bring you greetings from three-quarters of the people who live in 

 South Dakota. I am thinking of the people who live on the farms of the 

 state from which I am proud to come. There are some farmers here, are 

 there not? I thought so; and those are the people we bring greetings 

 form. 



DEAN JARDINE: 



We will next hear from Utah. Doctor John A. Widtsoe is scheduled 

 to make this report but I believe he is not present. Doctor Robert Stewart 

 will make the report if he is present. If not, there is a man here from 

 Utah who is the pioneer of dry-farming in the state of Utah, who was con- 

 nected with the Experiment Station and Agricultural College for a number 

 of years, and I am sure he will speak for the state of Utah for just a 

 moment, Lewis A. Merrill. 



Utah 



MR. MERRILL: 



Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: I certainly am a very young 

 man to be a pioneer, but I am proud to represent the state of Utah as the 



