16 



system which bears his name ; but he has not succeeded as an experiment- 

 alist and he has few experiments to justify his assertions. The contention 

 that his method of dr}^-f arming is the only proper one has not bee 

 sustained — for example in Utah it is practically unknown : while hi~ 

 statements at times are unreliable and misleading. The term " Scientific- 

 Soil Culture/' which is so earnestly advocated by Campbell, is much too 

 cumbersome and will assuredly not be accepted by the farming community 

 as a substitute for the simple phrase d^-farming. 



The machine called the Campbell sub-surface packer, under certain 

 conditions, gives good results ; but it must be used with care. Further- 

 more, it is seldom of much use on soil that has had time to settle and 

 become packed. It is therefore more valuable on spring than on fall or 

 autumn ploughing. Where loose manure has been applied to the land it 

 may be used to advantage, but on wet clayey ground it may seriously 

 injure the mechanical and physical texture of the soil. In short, the 

 Campbell sub-surface packer cannot be said to be essential to success in 

 dry-farming, although under certain conditions it is decidedly beneficial: 



Nevertheless, it is not fair to disparage Campbell's missionary efforts 

 amongst the farmers of the west. It is often said, and truly so, that 

 Jethro Tull was the first exponent of the so-called Campbell system of 

 soil culture ; but it should not be forgotten that Tull did not work under 

 semi-arid conditions, and secondly, that although his practice was success- 

 ful, his theories were erroneous. Be that as it may, the fact remains that 

 a large number of western farmers believe in Campbell's teaching, and 

 many have followed his system or like methods with success. 



At the end of this Chapter the well-chosen motto of the 

 Congress — conservation, cultivation, education — has been sketched, and I 

 shall now close with a short extract which is taken from a personal letter 

 from His Excellency Edwin L. Norris, Governor of Montana, and President 

 of the Fourth Dry-farming Congress which sums up its purpose and 

 scope : — 



" The, Dry-farming Congress, while American in its inception, knows 

 no country, its one object being the ' further development of agriculture 

 throughout the world by the utilisation of scientific and sensible methods 

 of conservation and cultivation where irrigation is impracticable or 

 impossible.' To the accomplishment of this object the congress is bend- 

 ing every energy, and in the three years of its history it has done an 

 amount of good that cannot be computed in mere figures. It aims to 

 bring together, from every country on the globe, the leaders in a movement 

 that is fraught with so much importance to the people of all lands. It 

 purposes to hasten in every way possible the day when the application of 

 scientific methods to agriculture will add countless millions of acres to the 

 areas now under cultivation, and so contribute tremendously to the world's 

 supply of breadstuff's and to its wealth." 



From Cheyenne I returned eastwards -through Sioux City to St. Paul 

 where I called on Mr. J. J. Hill, who is popularly known as the " Empire 

 Builder of the West." Besides being the foremost railroad director in 

 America, Mr. Hill has also won a wide reputation as an agricultural 

 economist. He was born in the year 1838 on a small farm in Canada : 

 and has recently given the sum of half a million dollars to endow a Roman 

 Catholic Seminary in St. Paul. Half a century ago two farm lads started 

 out to win fame and fortune. The one, a Canadian — James J. Hill — 

 became the railroad builder of the American North-west ; the other an 



