156 



DRY-FARMING CONGRESS, WICHITA, 1914 



is required to pump water for the farm animals will not furnish sufficient 

 water for both home comforts and livestock, one should be provided par- 

 ticularly for the garden and lawn. It is a paying investment and a neces- 

 sity for permanent home-building. 



Not only will it be found profitable to operate such a plant in the 

 summer, but it can also be profitably operated during the winter season. 

 Western arid soils generally have the property of holding in suspension 

 great quantities of water. Our dry winters are favorable for winter irriga- 

 tion, and accordingly the windmill should be permitted to operate and 

 pump water to soak the potato field and garden during the dormant season. 

 The shade and fruit trees can also be profitably watered in the very late 

 autumn and early winter. This water, if carefully stored in the soil during 

 the winter, dissolves and holds in solution great quantities of plant food 

 and when the early spring crops are planted vegetable growth is greatly 

 accelerated. The windmill needs no rest and the product of its work can 

 usually be profitably applied to the soil at any season of the year. 



It is possible for the dry-land farmer to irrigate more than a small 

 area about the home. Two windmills when pumping into a common reser- 

 voir will furnish water to irrigate more than twice the area of one. As 

 the number of mills is increased the area which can be irrigated will grow 

 in an increasing ratio. Three or four windmills and a good reservoir will 

 enable the farmer to irrigate three or four acres or more of land. On such 

 an area the farmer could produce some alfalfa, potatoes and other root 

 crops, besides the usual vegetables and small fruits. Such a plant, al- 

 though requiring a rather high initial cost for its water capacity, is gen- 

 erally .cheap in operation and maintenance and affords a good insurance 

 policy for the farmer's food supply. The money crops on the dry-land 

 farm must be produced by the natural precipitation without the aid of 

 irrigation. Naturally the rainfall is not constant for every year, and ac- 

 cordingly years of plenty may be followed by a series of lean crops. It is 

 during these unfavorable years that the small irrigation plant will be most 

 appreciated as well as valuable as a money maker. 



Every farmer of the Great Plains Area should have a windmill. The 

 forces of the wind are now largely wasted. Nature's power is free to the 

 man who will erect a tower and wheel to absorb the energy. With the 

 windmills we must have reservoirs to impound the water until a sufficient 

 amount can* be secured for economical irrigation. Too much should not be 

 attempted, but a little irrigation can be very profitably practiced to sup- 

 plement the natural precipitation; and if the dry-land farmer will practice 

 his modern methods of moisture conservation he should be able to afford 

 the essential comforts of home life. 



DOCTOR WORST: 



Mr. President: May I just drop a thought here? I have been advocat- 

 ing for a number of years the thought that if we could unite, under state or 

 federal control, and plant a row of trees or two rows of trees east and 

 west across the whole country at various intervals, beginning at the Gulf 



