DRY-FARMING CONGRESS, WICHITA, 1914 



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step beyond what has already been accomplished in dry-land agriculture — 

 but it is a step that profoundly affects many million acres of tillable soil. 



In the discussion of drought-resistant crops, permit me to consider 

 them in two categories, first, nonforage crops; second, forage crops. The 

 nonforage, dry-land crops are the small grains — namely, wheat, barley, oats, 

 rye, and cotton. Some of the sorghums, like broomcorn and the grain 

 sorghums, may be considered nonforage, but these may be discussed with 

 the other sorghums. Since the dry lands have been cultivated the most 

 noteworthy, new, drought-resistant, nonforage crop introduced is durum 

 wheat, first brought in in the Nineties. The introduction of the durum 

 wheats added materially to the area from which profitable crops could be 

 grown. 



How much further dry-land agriculture may be extended by finding 

 or developing more drought-resistant varieties of the small grains, and in 

 the South, of cotton, no man can predict. It is clear, however, that there 

 are still possibilities in this direction. It is not clear, however, that there 

 are any other food plants likely to be discovered that are more drought- 

 resistant for the area in question than the small grains. The sorghums 

 and the millets are here omitted to be discussed elsewhere. 



It is a remarkable fact that all of the important crops grown for 

 human food were cultivated by primitive man. While possibilities may 

 exist in improving other wild plants so as to produce food for man, the fact 

 remains that since there has been written history no such new food plant 

 has ever yet been developed. It would therefore appear that the profitable 

 extension in dry-land agriculture of crops for human food will, apart from 

 improved tillage methods, have to depend upon the breeding or discovery 

 of better drought-resistant varieties of the small grains we already have. 



So far as cotton is concerned, the case does not appear to be materially 

 different. 



When we come to the forage crops, however, the case is considerably 

 more complex and the possibilities much greater. 



For the purposes of this discussion, I shall consider the dry lands 

 proper are those where broadcasted alfalfa is not a profitable crop. Where 

 broadcasted alfalfa succeeds, there is, generally speaking, no serious forage 

 problem. East of the Rocky Mountains broadcasted alfalfa will succeed 

 at the Canadian boundary where there is but 18 inches annual rainfall, and 

 in central Texas where there is but 25 inches. This is, however, locally 

 modified by the topography of the land and the character of the soil. 



Our real dry-land area east of the Rocky Mountains, therefore, is that 

 which lies between the limits of 14 and 18 inches of rainfall in the northern 

 part of the Great Plains area, and between 14 and 25 inches in Texas. In 

 the area in question, the successful forage crops are in the main annuals: 

 namely, the small grains for hay — wheat, oats, barley, rye — the sorghums, 

 the millets, field peas, and cowpeas. It must frankly be admitted that none 

 of these, nor all of them combined, have solved or are likely to solve the 

 problem of profitable forage production on all of the area in question. The 



