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DRY-FARMING CONGRESS, WICHITA, 1914 



this effort to conquer the desert. The old phrase has rung in my ears for a 

 long time. We do not think of any desert indications in Rice county any 

 more. They made a charge on the desert along back in '86 and '87 and they 

 were repulsed because they went with more enthusiasm than with knowl- 

 edge of agriculture. They could not stay, but men who did stay, who did 

 find a place where they could make a home and work, have succeeded. 

 They made homes there because they could grow trees. Around any good 

 home there should be some trees, even though we cannot grow anything 

 more than a switch tree. If you find a place in a draw where there is a 

 nice little piece of ground that is well protected and watered, there is a 

 mighty good place to try for an orchard. Fix up some way so all that 

 water will not run off. 



In the history of Kansas horticulture, I think there is one word that 

 stands first and foremost, and that is subsoil. You can grow some trees for 

 a long while on any soil in Kansas, but when it comes to planting trees 

 that you know will grow, the word you want to watch all the time is sub- 

 soil. There are thousands of acres in Kansas where we do not need any 

 exploration, except to find we are on that good, deep, rich subsoil that 

 lasts always. The last two or three years have shown us some lessons. 

 The men who are buying irrigation plants are men who have a stratum of 

 hard soil that does not let the water through, therefore the irrigation sys- 

 tems. The man who plants trees without some investigation of the subsoil 

 is taking a chance. If you can only plant a dozen trees, do so; but see 

 that those trees have the benefit resulting from the water, and see that the 

 water will be held when it comes, and you will be doing more good than 

 the man who plants thousands of trees and plants them carelessly. The 

 real estate men of Kansas have got down now and learned that the best 

 thing to tell about any country is the truth. The man who looks a problem 

 in the face and finds out all the facts has a better chance for success than 

 the man who just guesses. Until we find some way to get that water 

 down into that subsoil, it is going to be a mighty slow way for the trees 

 to grow. 



If I could only say one thing to the young fellows who are going into 

 the dry-land country, it would be to remember that the red cedar is the 

 oldest member of the tribe in the shortgrass country. It is one of the last 

 of the race. It is here because it could accustom itself to conditions and 

 could fight with the water and wind. The prairie fire was hard on the 

 cedar, as this is its worst enemy. It is worth more than any other species 

 of native trees because it offers more resistance to wind than any other 

 tree. I know that a good many of these old settlers did their part to 

 deforest the canons of Kansas, but they do not need to make any apologies 

 because they needed those red cedar posts. 



A species like that, we must understand, will grow 24 inches a year for 

 the first five years, and we have done that well out at the Hays Station. 

 We got in too big a hurry 25 or 30 years ago — we wanted a tree that would 

 grow quickly, so we planted the cottonwoods. The red cedar does not need 

 so much water. It is a natural born economist. It takes just as little food 



