DRY-FARMING CONGRESS, WICHITA, 1914 



187 



man on the street and I asked him how much rain they had there. "Why, 

 last year we had three yards and a half," he replied. "Well, how much is 

 that?" "Ten feet six/' he said. Seeing I did not yet comprehend, he said, 

 "That is 126 inches, if you want to get down to detail." I mention this 

 simply to point out that we have excessive rainfall. 



Practically the whole of the dairying wealth is raised in the tropical 

 parts of the country. We grow good cows, send the butter to London, and 

 get good prices for it, under latitude 17. I do not believe commercial 

 butter, taking its chances in the world, is raised under such condi- 

 tions. The whole of the dairying industry in tropical parts is carried on by 

 the feeding of certain grasses secured from Peru. These grasses were 

 brought to Australia by a German farmer about 25 years ago, absolutely 

 revolutionizing the dairying industry to such an extent that large areas of 

 land which were growing sugar cane were put into growing cows. There 

 is more money made out of dairying than out of sugar cane. As far as this 

 part of the country is concerned we do not need irrigation. 



Tn regard to dry-farming in Australia, I want to say this; that as far 

 back as 35 or 40 years ago, we started dry-farming in certain parts, not 

 that we did not have any amount of land upon which we could farm, grow- 

 ing all the wheat in the rainfall area, but that in five or six separate places 

 in South Australia the farmers, when they started to grow cereals, to keep 

 the people in that state which was not then connected by railroad with 

 other states, they had to get enough to keep the people of their own states, 

 and to provide enough for the people to go out on the dry districts of that 

 state. The result was that these farmers devised a system of dry-farming 

 which I have found since being practiced in America, and is identically the 

 same as 'is used here. I am pleased to be able to say that these men with- 

 out any knowledge of what was going on in the United States and Canada, 

 were able to invent something to bring about a system of dry-farming which 

 is practically the same as existing here today. 



My own farm has a rainfall of 30 inches per year. Although 1 say it 

 myself, I have always been rather progressive in regard to farming, and I 

 adopted this dry-farming system, although we had sufficient rainfall, and 

 by so doing, I was able to produce more than any other individual in that 

 locality; but the result of it was that I am being sent to help the farmers 

 of that country to improve their land by dry-farming methods. I point 

 these facts out to show that we have been trying to work out the same 

 plan there as here. I appreciate very fully the enormous good work you 

 are' doing here. The farmers have only come to their own during the last 

 few years. The wheat farmers were forced further west on account of the 

 dairying industry. Practically all of the wheat grown in Australia, which 

 only runs in the neighborhood of 100 million bushels, is produced in what 

 we call the dry belt, or where the rainfall is less than 20 inches. The reason 

 we do not produce more wheat is that we have such tremendous producing 

 power as compared to our consuming power, that we are compelled to pro- 

 duce the things which we can most easily sell, and wheat is not one of 

 them. Our wheat has to be shipped about 13,000 miles, and you can quite 



