30 



IV. That late winter seeding, that is November, is better than 



early winter seeding, that is September. 

 Y. That thin seeding is better than heavy seeding for the dry 



Panhandle region. 



The New Station. — In company with Mr. Eoss, I drove out to the' 

 new Dry-land Station which is being established two and a half miles 

 from town. It has been acquired on a twenty years' lease. The owner 

 gave the land free of charge for a period of twenty years at a merely 

 nominal rent ; the Commercial Club of Amarillo raised $5,000 to erect 

 buildings and fences, and the Government pays all other expenses such 

 as salaries, labour, field tests, etc. At the end of twenty years the 

 buildings and land revert to the owner ; the machinery and equipment 

 belong to the Government. This farm consists of 120 acres ; the land 

 has been laid off in acre plots and will then be cut up into tenth-acre 

 plots with small plots between the smaller divisions, large paths separating 

 the acre plots. A comfortable house is being erected for the superin- 

 tendent and his family. 



Review. — The Dry-land Station at Amarillo is simple, inexpensive, 

 and well suited to the purpose of testing drought-resistant cereals, rota- 

 tions, and tillage. But in my opinion it is most unfortunate that the 

 original land should have been acquired on so short a period as five 

 years, and still more so that a new station should have also been acquired 

 on merely a twenty year lease. In work of this kind the longer experi- 

 ments are in progress on the same class of soil the more valuable they 

 become. If the United States Government grants free homesteads to 

 thousands of unskilled settlers, I fail to see why the Secretary of Agricul- 

 ture with the Legislatures of the different States should not acquire a 

 small portion of land former, even if it has to be abandoned at sumo 

 future period. This method would give fixity of tenure and render the 

 station independent of local land booming or local depression. 



Again, I am rather inclined to think that too many lines of work are 

 being attempted. Six carefully chosen and persistently followed lines of 

 investigation will ultimately give better results than a large range which 

 cannot be properly looked after by one man. I was surprised to see no 

 attempt had been made to plant trees, another reason for the avoidance of 

 a short lease. Nevertheless, with these reservations, the work of the 

 station cannot be too highly commended. 



The Dry-land Experiment Station at Dalhart is situated about four 

 Lours from Amarillo, and is on much the same lines as at the latter 

 place. This station is under the immediate control of the Department 

 of Agriculture — Office of Dry-Ian cl Investigations — and is located upon a 

 farm of 160 acres which the citizens of Dalhart donated to the Govern- 

 ment on a ninety-nine year lea^e for the purpose of e tablishing and 

 maintaining an Experiment Station. -They further contributed $4,000 

 (£800) to the equipment of this station. The station is located on sandy 

 land, and is representative of a large area of land in north-western Texas 

 and Oklahoma. Experiments are in progress with winter wheat, winter 

 i -ye. corn (maize), kaffir corn, and cowpeas. 



I left Amarillo at 11.55 p.m. on the Colorado and Southern Railroad, 

 and reached Denver the next afternoon at 4.45 p.m. We traversed a 



