138 



DRY-FARMING CONGRESS, WICHITA, 1914 



sorghum and in that way the soil is stored with moisture and available 

 plant food and will produce the maximum wheat crop the following year. 



CHAIRMAN ATKINSON: 



Not all of the workers in the dry-land regions fully realize what 

 agrostology means. The head of the office of the United State Department 

 of Agriculture is here this morning — C. V. Piper — and he is to discuss the 

 question of "Forage Crops." 



I am glad to introduce to you Mr. Piper. 



Address of C. V. Piper. 

 FORAGE CROPS AND THE EXTENSION OF DRY-FARMING 

 AGRICULTURE 



The great problem confronting American students of dry-land agri- 

 culture, when reduced to a single concrete statement, may thus be formu- 

 lated: How much of the dry lands of the West can be brought into per- 

 manent and profitable cultivation? 



At the present time the more optimistic among us profess to believe 

 that practically every tillable acre will yet be made to yield profitable crops, 

 while the more pessimistic are sure that much land has been plowed up 

 that had better been left as natural pasture. 



Is it possible at the present time to forecast on a basis of actual 

 knowledge which one of these prophets speaks the more truly so that we 

 can give advice with some assurance to the prospective settler? Or must 

 any future progress repeat the history of the past — a recurrent advance 

 of settlers in seasons of favorable conditions, and a retreat when the 

 unfavorable seasons intervene ? 



Optimism is more often a good thing than is pessimism, but it may 

 seriously be questioned if any man has the right to preach optimism as 

 regards unproved possibilities of dry-farming, the more so that the actual 

 burden of probable failure has to be borne by people poorly equipped either 

 in experience or means. 



Reduced to its simplest terms, the extension of dry-land agriculture 

 depends primarily upon two factors: 1. The improvement of tillable 

 methods; 2. The securing of better dry-land crop plants. 



At the present time I shall not discuss the matter of tillage. Exten- 

 sive experiments are under way throughout the West, and we may con- 

 fidently expect to know within a few years just which tillage methods give 

 the best results under given conditions. 



What, then, are the prospects, so far as the better drought-resistant 

 crops are concerned — and I use the term "drought-resistant" here in its 

 popular meaning; namely, the ability to produce crops under conditions of 

 low rainfall? 



I shall limit my discussion largely to the dry land east of the Rocky 

 Mountains. You are aware of the fact that everywhere in this area the 

 normal annual rainfall is at least 14 inches. To bring even the driest part 

 of this area into successful cultivation seems but a comparatively small 



