DRY-FARMING IN AMERICA. 



Chaptee I. 



TO THE CHEYENNE CONGRESS. 



I left Pretoria on the 11th of January, and two days later sailed by the 

 Walmer Castle. The voyage was exceptionally calm and pleasant, and we 

 arrived in Southampton on the 30th January. I spent two weeks in 

 London and left Liverpool for New York on Saturday, 13th February, 

 at 5 p.m., by the Mauretania. The second day at sea this wonderful 

 vessel broke all previous Atlantic records, doing 671 knots or 773 land 

 miles from noon of Sunday till noon on Monday, and so we passed the 

 Ambrose Channel Lightship off New York on Thursday, the 18th, at 

 9.55 p.m. — after having come through a terrific gale — in four days, 

 seventeen hours, and six minutes, the fastest voyage* ever made. The 

 Mauretania is a splendid triumph of British shipbuilding, because even at 

 her great average speed of 25.55 knots per hour, or, in other words, one 

 land mile every two minutes, it is hard to realise that you are at sea, so 

 slight is the motion of the vessel. 



I arrived in New York City at 10 o'clock on the morning of the 19th 

 and left the same afternoon at 3.45 by the Congressional Limited for 

 Washington. This is the smoothest running train in America and one 

 of the most rapid. It is run in two sections which follow one another at 

 an interval of five minutes. Each consists of four Pullman cars. Thus 

 instead of one long train, two are run on the same track, ensuring great 

 speed and smoothness. The broad guage, viz., 4 feet 8^4 inches, has 

 been adopted on this line. We arrived at Washington sharp on time, 

 having traversed a distance of 225 miles. 



At 10 o'clock next morning I called at the Embassy and was most 

 cordially received by the British Ambassador. We at once stepped into 

 his motor car and drove to the Department of State where the Committee 

 for the " Conservation of Natural Resources " was in session. Here I met 

 the Hon. James Wilson, United States Secretary for Agriculture ; the 

 Hon. Sydney Fisher, Minister of Agriculture for the Dominion of Canada ; 

 and Mr. Gifford Pinchot, Chief of the Bureau of Forestry. 



Through the courtesy of Mr. Bryce, at 12.30 p.m. of the same day I 

 had the honour of being received by the President of the United States, 

 Mr. Roosevelt, who welcomed me with the greatest cordiality, and asked 

 me to present his hearty personal greeting of good-will to the Right Hon. 

 the Prime Minister of the Transvaal, and to say how interested he was 

 in South African affairs, and how heartily he wished all success to those 

 who dwell in South Africa. The President also said that he was very 

 much interested in the development of dry-farming, as he had much to 

 do with irrigation and kindred matters in the semi-arid regions of the 



* This record has since been broken. 



