DRY-FARMING CONGRESS, WICHITA, 1914 



255 



DRY-FARMING: WHAT IT IS AND WHAT IT MEANS. 



The following is the address delivered by W. M. Jardine, Dean of the 

 Kansas Agricultural College and Director of Kansas Experiment Stations, 

 and one of the founders of the International Dry-Farming Congress, at the 

 formal Congress dinner given to distinguished visitors, guests and speakers 

 of the Congress by the Kansas Board of Control at the Wichita Club, 

 Wichita, Kansas, the night of October 15, 1914. 



This address by Dean Jardine is one of the strongest definitions of dry- 

 farming and the justification for the organization of the International Dry- 

 Farming Congress and its results that has ever been uttered. 



Its use and dissemination are most earnestly recommended: 



"In the few moments I have to speak to you this evening, I feel that 

 I cannot do better than to review briefly the history of the development of 

 the International Dry-Farming Congress. Most of you assembled here, are 

 attending for the first time the sessions of this institution, and are there- 

 fore unfamiliar with its origin and growth during the past ten years. 



"There have been nine sessions held. The first call was issued by the 

 Governor of Colorado in the winter of 1906. Delegates representing the 

 Western States, that is, states west of the Missouri river, assembled in the 

 Albany Hotel at Denver and there discussed this new system of dry-farming 

 about which little was known at that time outside of Utah. 



"It was decided to effect a permanent organization, to be known as the 

 Transmissouri Dry-Farming Congress, and which was to hold annual ses- 

 sions. The second meeting was held in Salt Lake City, in January, 1907, as 

 I remember it; the third at Cheyenne, Wyoming; the fourth at Billings, 

 Montana; the fifth at Spokane, Washington; the sixth at Colorado Springs, 

 Colorado; the seventh at Lethbridge, Canada; the eighth at Tulsa, Okla- 

 homa; and the ninth at Wichita. ! 



"During the first three sessions the program consisted only of meetings 

 at which papers were presented and discussions were held. The exposition 

 became a feature of the Congress for the first time at the Billings session, 

 since which time it has become a very important feature of the Congress. 



"The Women's auxiliary came into being at Colorado Springs. 



"The object of the Dry-Farming Congress was to perfect an organiza- 

 tion which would serve as a clearing-house for all information relating to 

 the subject of dry-farming and for the presentation of facts fundamental to 

 its development. The annual sessions were'to be participated in by farmers, 

 investigators and businessmen alike, or anyone else interested in the real 

 welfare and business of dry-farming. Its sessions were to be informal and 

 conservative. Its policy from the beginning has been sound, and free from 

 graft and the yellow journalism type of boosting. At different times men 

 have appeared on the floor for the purpose of changing the name of the 

 Congress. At times systematic and organized effort has been made to 

 change the object and name of the Congress, in order that it might become 

 more of an organization to boost the sale of Western lands and also the 



