DRY-FARMING CONGRESS, WICHITA, 1914 



39 



tion of having the highest experiment station, or rather an experiment 

 station at a higher elevation, in the world. Most of our experiments give 

 us a negative result. We do not try to get positive results, but we try, 

 in a way, to prove what must not be done at a certain altitude and we are 

 able to tell our people what not to do. 



We have been experimenting and trying to increase the resistance to 

 altitude at some of the farms and have succeeded fairly well. 



Another drawback has been the attitude of the horseback farmers 

 or the cattlemen. The cattlemen have maintained that Wyoming cannot, 

 and will not be a farming state. They have been in control of the ma- 

 chinery of the state and have been able to keep out men who have been 

 seeking homes and who have been endeavoring to make a home. But gradu- 

 ally people are coming into the state and proving they can grow crops and 

 make a good living. 



As a result of the survey that was made in Laramie County where 

 many people said the farmers were starving, they were, it was demon- 

 strated, making a good living. In fact, some of the farmers were averag- 

 ing $1500 as an indication of a handsome income. 



We need more people. Wyoming is a big state but small in population,, 

 but the people who are coming in are demonstrating that Wyoming will be 

 an agricultural state. 



In the northern part, we can grow almost any crop. We are able to 

 grow watermelons, peas, tomatoes, and in some instances sweet potatoes. 

 A year ago we had a fine exhibit of products from the Big Horn Basin. 

 The university and college have been handicapped by lack of funds to carry 

 on experiment work, and it has been due to the factors I have just men- 

 tioned that the cattle kings have been very zealous in their efforts to keep 

 out people who wanted to make homes in Wyoming, and so the college 

 people have had no money to encourage the farmers. However, since the 

 passage of the Smith-Lever Act, we have been able to carry on the work to 

 better advantage and we are endeavoring to help the farmers. 



We find our soil is poor in organic matter and we have been teaching 

 the farmers to use sweet clover and it is proving an excellent crop. Alfalfa 

 is proving a great crop in Wyoming, and during the past two years, we 

 have shipped out thousands and thousands of cars of alfalfa. 



We are trying to teach the people to get into stockraising. We have 

 a section up in the Powell district under the Government Reclamation ser- 

 vice occupied by a very distinguished body of people — there were not a 

 dozen farmers on that whole community, there were lawyers, college men, 

 etc., and they are making a great success, but they cannot do it all. We 

 are trying to get those people to buy a cow, or a pig, or an animal of some 

 kind, to build up a livestock industry; and although Wyoming is a great 

 livestock state, yet the cattle kings have not learned to use the crops grown 

 there. So we hope, by our efforts in the future, to help the farmer realize 

 the necessity of feeding what they raise. We are also helping to encourage 

 all schools in agriculture. We have a law requiring all public schools to 



