15 



which is to take place at Cheyenne at the end of February next, and for 

 the great care which has evidently been taken by the board of control to 

 make this Congress a success. You will be able to tell the gentlemen 

 who receive you how much this courtesy is appreciated in South Africa 

 and what great importance we attach to the success of this congress, for 

 dry-farming is a scientific problem which it is as much to the interests of 

 South Africa to solve as of the United States of America. 

 Wishing you all success. 



Believe me, 

 Yours very truly, 



Selborne, 

 Governor of the Transvaal 

 and High Commissioner for South Africa. 



The third message which I have been commissioned to lay before 

 you is from the Eight Hon. the Earl of Crewe, P.C., M.A., Secretary of 

 State for the Colonies. Sir Francis J. S. Hopwood, G-.C.M.G.. K.C.B., 

 Permanent Under Secretary of State for the Colonies, writes as follows : — 



No. III. 



Colonial Office, Whitehall, London, 



9th February, 1909. 



Dr. William Macdonald, 



Langham Hotel, London. 



Sir, 



I am requested by the Secretary of State for the Colonies to ask you 

 to convey to the President and Members of the Trans-Missouri Dry- 

 farming Congress, which meets at Cheyenne, his most cordial good wishes 

 for the success of their deliberations. Lord Crewe desires me to add 

 that he has followed with keen interest the splendid progress which has 

 been made in the reclamation and settlement of the arid lands of Western 

 America ; and he is confident that the scientific study of the potentialities 

 of those regions in which the rainfall is small and irregular will do much 

 to promote the agricultural prosperity both of the United States and 

 the British Empire. 



I have the honour to be, Sir, 



Your obedient servant, 



Francis J. Hopwood, 

 Under Secretary of State for the Colonies. 



Lastly, I am desired by the British Ambassador at Washington, 

 the Eight Hon. James Bryce, O.M., P.O., to convey to you his 

 best wishes for the success of this conference and to assure you of 

 the great interest he takes in the agricultural development of Western 

 America. 



As already mentioned, during the congress I had the pleasure of 

 meeting Mr. Hardy W. Campbell, of Lincoln, Nebraska. Mr. Campbell 

 is widely known throughout the west as the author of what is commonly 

 called the Campbell Method of Dry-farming. As this practice has been 

 both praised and censured it is rather hard to form a fair estimate of its 

 real value. But during my last tour I have come to the following con- 

 clusion.* Mr. Campbell has done much to advertise and popularise the 



* In this estimate of Campbell's work I am supported by Mr. Joseph A. Rosen, Chief of 

 the Russian Bureau of Agriculture, of Ekaterinoslay. and by Mr. William M. Jardine,. 

 Agronomist to the National Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C. 



