DRY-FARMING CONGRESS, WICHITA, 1914 



125 



With best wishes to you for a most profitable session of the Congress, 

 I am Sincerely yours, 



JOHN A. WIDTSOE, 



President. 



In the absence of Doctor Widtsoe, it is my pleasure to introduce 

 to you, as the presiding officer of the morning, Professor Alfred Atkinson, 

 of the Montana Agricultural College. 



CHAIRMAN ATKINSON: 



I believe that those who have attended the sessions of the Congress in 

 the past will agree with me when I say tnat the program yesterday was 

 about the best the Congress has ever offered us, not only in the quality of 

 the addresses given, but the theme. The program this morning promises 

 to be unusual and deals with some of the things that are identified with 

 permanent agriculture. The first address, "The Domestic Orchard for the 

 Dry-Farmer," is a subject worthy of consideration, which is to be discussed 

 by Albert Dickens, Horticulturist in the Kansas Agricultural College, at 

 Manhattan, Kansas. I have the pleasure of introducing Professor Dickens. 



Address of Mr. Dickens 

 THE DOMESTIC ORCHARD FOR THE DRY-FARMER 



I never get a glad hand before I begin to talk but what I am reminded 

 of the story of the Southern congregation which was going to raise their 

 pastor's salary $10.00 a year, but I am glad that your chairman this morn- 

 ing indicated that this question of horticulture is not a joke in the dry-land 

 agricultural proposition. It has been considered a joke a good many times. 

 I am inclined to think, in the last 10 or 15 years, the greatest joke the gov- 

 ernment ever perpetrated is the Timber Claim Act. But there is a need 

 of horticulture in this shortgrass country, on these dry-land farms. 



Horticulture is the part of agriculture that makes agriculture a fizzle 

 when you don't put~it in. I have had this called to my mind several times 

 when our boys come in from the western part of our state and they are 

 anxious to study horticulture. I asked how many varieties of apples they 

 knew, and some knew 25 or 30, all the good old favorites. Reno county 

 students knew 10 or 15. One lad who grew up in the extreme western part 

 of the state said the only two varieties they ever shipped into his town were 

 Ben. Davis and windfall! 



In the making of civilization, you cannot get a home without trees be- 

 cause your women will not stay and you do not want any civilization where 

 your women will not stay. Any civilization that is not founded on the per- 

 manency of the home is not worth much — it will not last long. The men 

 who came to Nebraska or Kansas and stayed a few years and got a few 

 crops of wheat did not help the civilization of the West. It is only the man 

 who goes there who thinks he sees the chance to make a permanent home, 

 who really helps the civilization of a country. 



I am not going to advocate any Royal Road in trying to use force in 



