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DRY-FARMING CONGRESS, WICHITA, 1914 



It is obvious that the improvement of our crop plants, and the efficient 

 organization all over the world of the communities that grow them is rap- 

 idly passing beyond the power of any man, no matter how competent he may 

 be. The scientific study of the fundamentals of crop improvement re- 

 quire the efficient cooperation of all the talented men, with different 

 points of view, and different kinds of ability. This Congress, with some 

 little modification in the program, can realize this purpose. Scientific ag- 

 riculture has no frontier, and recognizes no difference in nationality. If we 

 project ourselves into the future, we see the great problems of agriculture 

 ieing attacked from different points of view. 



It is my purpose in this short address to destroy, or rather change 

 the opinion so prevalent here in these states, that all our efforts and ambi- 

 tions in Spain tend toward bullfights and pretty faces! 



I thank you. 



MR. MANTLE: 



We deeply regret the absence of Harold Hamel Smith of London, Editor 

 of Tropical Life, who was to have spoken on "The Progress of Dry-Farming 

 Methods in the Tropics." His excellent paper on this subject will be read 

 by the Secretary, Mr. Faxon: 



Address of Mr. Smith 

 THE PROGRESS OF DRY-FARMING IN THE TROPICS 



Amidst the thunders of war, although I am ashamed to say, well out 

 of its reach, I find myself towards the end of August, seated comfortably 

 in my garden reading about the charge of the Turcos, the bravery of the 

 Belgians, and the doings of the Germans, whilst I listen to children play- 

 ing at soldiers, and a sleepy church-bell tolling for a funeral; thus it is 

 that I start to write about "Dry-Farming Methods in the Tropics." 



Barely a month ago 1 was writing my paper for the London Rubber 

 Exhibition Congress, on "Manuring Rubber," in which I urged the advan- 

 tages of inducing the roots of rubber trees in the tropics to go down, and 

 not spread out laterally, first to insure the tree getting the benefit of the 

 water deep down in the soil away out of reach of hot winds and drying at- 

 mosphere, and secondly, to give them a firmer grip on the soil so as to 

 minimize the risk of their being blown down by high winds. Writing along 

 these lines reminds me of Dr. Widtsoe's book, where, on page 93 he tells us, 

 "One of the chief attempts of the dry-farmer must be to see to it that the 

 plants root deeply. This can be done only," he adds, "by preparing tn*. 

 right kind of seed-bed, and by having the soil in its lower depths well stored 

 with moisture, so that the plants may be invited to descend. For that 

 reason, an excess of moisture in the upper soil when the young plants are 

 rooting is really an injury to them." To my mind this sentence should be 

 written up large in the office or sanctum of every agriculturist, dry-farm- 

 ing or otherwise, whether in the tropics or elsewhere. Even with matured 

 trees it is the same, and Mr. Kelway Bamber of Ceylon, a leader among 

 scientists in tropical agriculture, when reading a paper before the Low- 



