DRY-FARMING CONGRESS, WICHITA, 1914 



61 



area of the range it has greatly reduced the number of range-bred cattle 

 until the industry is fast being driven to the mountain fastnesses, the 

 desert areas, and to land under lease in the United States Forest Reserve- 

 Meantime settlement has pressed hard upon these former pastures, and 

 much land has been broken up which is more suitable for grazing than 

 for crop production. 



The settlement of land has generally resulted in its withdrawal from 

 pasture and the use of the better portions of the land for grainraising. 

 Generally the homesteader was too poor to own cattle and was dependent 

 for his subsistence on the grain he could raise. If seasons were favorable 

 he prospered; if unfavorable, he held on in poverty and in the hope that 

 next year would again be a year of plenty; or if conditions compelled, he 

 sold out to the cattleman. Many of these settlers were able to purchase 

 or to bring with them a small bunch of beef cattle or a few milch cows, 

 and the increase from this nucleus of a herd made them less dependent 

 upon the grain crop than were their neighbors who did not supplement their 

 grain farming with livestock. 



In nearly all the Great Plains region where rainfall is so low or so 

 uncertain as to make graingrowing precarious, the men who have developed 

 livestock production as an adjunct to grain farming have prospered beyond 

 those who have depended upon grain alone as a source of revenue. In this 

 case they have frequently occupied the cheaper and rougher land rather 

 than the smoother lands and have found the pasturing of the cheaper lands 

 more profitable than the cultivation of the tillable land. 



Regardless of the advantage which has come to the Plains region 

 through the introduction of dry-farming methods, forage crops are much 

 more certain to mature than grain crops, and are valuable only when there 

 is livestock available to consume them. Kafir, feterita, cane, and the other 

 sorghums are valuable in proportion as they can be utilized locally for 

 livestock. The small grains which are most normally grown, aside from 

 wheat, are also most profitable if consumed locally, as markets are likely 

 to be uncertain and freight rates high. 



A considerable proportion of the land in the Plains region is rough, 

 sandy, or. otherwise unfit for the plow. This land should be fully utilized 

 /or pasture purposes. In addition to this, all lands of the smoother class 

 which will produce a larger net profit in grass than by cropping under the 

 uncertainty of the seasons should be kept in grass and utilized as pasture. 

 A careful examination of the dry-farming regions will show that the per- 

 cent of smooth hard lands which should be retained in grass is much 

 larger than would at first be supposed. It may be claimed that these lands 

 have become too high-priced to use for pasture; but unless the land can 

 show a net profit on the crop in an average year which will pay the fixed 

 charges on the land, then the excess value placed on the land over its net 

 earning power is purely speculative and not to be used as a basis upon 

 which to establish land values or determine systems of land management. 

 The net profit per acre in good years is less under pasture than under 

 grain-cropping, but in bad years the nef revenue is greater under pasture, 



