36 



nient co-operates in this work and supplies the superintendent with 

 various scientific implements and new seeds. 



Concerning equipment, water for domestic purposes has to be hauled 

 from town every day, a distance of six miles. The foreman lives in town ; 

 but he camps on the station ground during the busy season. The super- 

 intendent likewise resides in Nephi. There is an office and laboratory, 

 a machine shed, and outhouse on the station. A sage-brush grubber was 

 the only unfamiliar implement to me. Mr. Boswell favours a press-shoe- 

 drill over the disc-drill, as it presses down the seed better. The best 

 harvests have been obtained with 45 lbs. of seed wheat put 

 into the ground about three inches deep. There is only a small revenue, 

 namely, about $200, from the sale of the grain. There are no wind-breaks 

 about the station. Trees have not been successful, and even the hardy 

 locust tree succumbs to the drought. 



Leaving iNephi I travelled back to Logan, in the north. The agri- 

 cultural valley which stretches from Salt Lake City through Ogden to 

 Logan, and which has been developed both by dry-farming and irriga- 

 tion, is one of unrivalled beauty. Here you see the great irrigation works 

 of the Bear River, watering 150,000 acres, most of which is laid down 

 to sugar beets. It is interesting to learn that the sugar beets of Utah 

 give the highest sugar content of any State in the Union. As I said 

 before, wheat is now grown only on dry-lands, whereas sugar beets are 

 grown entirely under water. That evening I called on Dr. John A. 

 Widtsoe, President of the State Agricultural College, and author of " The 

 Arid-farm Bill of Utah." Dr. Widtsoe was born on the Island of Froyen, 

 off the coast of Norway, in the year 1872. Coming out to the United 

 States in 1883, he entered the Brigham Young College, Utah, and later 

 graduated from Harvard, Gottengen, and Zurich. In 1900 he was elected 

 Director of the Utah Experiment Station and Professor of Chemistry in 

 the Agricultural College at Logan, and seven years later was appointed 

 to his present post. Mr. Widtsoe is a member of the Church of Jesus 

 Christ of Latter Day Saints — Mormon Church — and is married to a grand- 

 daughter of Brigham Young. 



In Utah, Dr. Widtsoe was the first to publicly advocate the reclama- 

 tion of the deserts by the scientific study of the soil, so he may well be 

 termed the father of the modern dry-farming movement in this State. 

 His gospel of dry-farming may be tersely stated as follows : — 



(1) Plough deep. 



(2) Plough in the fall (autumn) ; there is no need for spring 

 ploughing. 



(3) Cultivate the soil in early spring, and as far as possible, after 

 every rain. 



(4) Grow crops that are drought-resistant. 



(5) To make dry-farming successful among practical men, stick to 



a few staple crops, such as wheat, oats, barley, rye, and 

 lucerne, and when these are established go on to others. 

 In his discussion with me on dry-farming, Dr. Widtsoe said : " In 

 Utah it has been demonstrated, beyond all doubt, that dry-farming is 

 possible where there is a rainfall of twelve inches per annum and where 

 the soils are of moderate fertility. It is sometimes said, 'Why fallow? ' 

 Out here, onr conclusion is that the rest afforded by the fallow,' combined 



