256 



DRY-FARMING CONGRESS, WICHITA, 1914 



prices. Every such attempt, however, has been defeated. The policies have 

 been ruled by a body whose membership has been largely made up of 

 farmers who were present to discuss better methods of dry-farming, rather 

 than to boost the price of land and to set before the public unreliable infor- 

 mation. 



"It is because of this policy of giving out the facts only, that the Con- 

 gress has been able to do so much good for dry-farming and for the West. 

 Its meetings and its advice have been sought by prospective settlers, because 

 it has come to be recognized as a reliable source of information. It has 

 grown in the nine years of its life from an organization made up of mem- 

 bers of three or four Western states, to an organization whose membership 

 is now composed of men from practically every nation of the earth, and the 

 term dry-farming is today as well if not better understood than any other 

 term relating to the business of farming. 



"Dry-farming is a term which originated in Utah, probably 50 years or 

 more ago. It was used in speaking of farming without irrigation. All the 

 farming in Utah is by irrigation or by dry-farming. Dry-farming is a term 

 that was used in contradistinction to irrigation farming. The summer-fallow 

 is fundamental to dry-farming. In fact, diy-f arming is based upon summer- 

 fallow. By means of the summer-fallow it is possible to store up water 

 from one year to another for the production of a crop. Thus the summer- 

 fallow took the place of irrigation; the only difference being that the sum- 

 mer-fallow stored the water from the heavens that came in the form of rain 

 and snow, which was later used to supply the growing crop when drought 

 was present, while the irrigator supplies the water from the streams. 



"Dry-farming as it is now understood had not been practiced by the 

 farmers of Kansas, Oklahoma, and Nebraska to any extent until the last 

 five years. It is only very recently that they are beginning to appreciate 

 the necessity of farming their land in a manner that will insure the greatest 

 possible utilization of the moisture available, a realization of which can only 

 be brought about by practicing what is now understood as dry-farming 

 methods. Farmers almost everywhere, whether in humid, sub-humid, or 

 arid regions, are beginning to realize that the limiting factor in crop produc- 

 tion, even where the annual rainfall is 60 inches or more, is lack of moisture 

 at critical periods of the plant's development, owing to periodical droughts 

 which almost ^always occur. 



"So we find them using dry-farming methods in Maryland as well as in 

 western Kansas, and in Russia as well as in the United States. 



"It is the Dry-Farming Congress that is responsible for this worMwide 

 understanding of the dry-farming system of growing crops. 



