with the customary tillage, results in the release of plant food. If we 

 were to preach any other doctrine but that of the moisture-saving fallow 

 on the deep fertile soils of Utah, Nevada, Idaho, and Arizona, it would 

 mean that our farmers would be ruined. In short, the summer fallow 

 stores up moisture and liberates plant food, making it possible for the 

 crop to develop to the fullest extent with a limited supply of moisture. 

 There is, therefore, a double reason for the summer fallow. Ultimately, 

 there will come a time that we must apply plant food in some direct 

 form, such as by green manuring ; but the soils of Utah, by the methods 

 just mentioned, have been producing large yields for the past quarter 

 of a century, and are still far from being exhausted. In my opinion, 

 commercial or artificial fertilisers will never be practicable on our large 

 •dry-farms, and we must resort to natural or barnyard manures." 



In the Cache Valley* — Next day, accompanied by Professor 

 Hogenson, I drove through the famous Cache Valley, the most renowned 

 dry-farming region in America. The winter wheat — Gold Coin — was 

 about six inches high, and was in excellent condition. What rather sur- 

 prised me was the number of cattle that were grazing over these wheat 

 lands. Mr. Hogenson said that this was the common custom in this part of 

 Utah. It tended to make the grain stool out, manured the fields, gave 

 the animals green feed, and did not materially injure the land, except 

 to compact it if there was too much tramping. The cattle are put on 

 just after the ground is hard enough in the spring-time, and are kept on 

 for about six weeks. It was also most interesting to see everywhere 

 examples of the summer fallow method ; that is to say, you could see 

 ihe vivid green of a field of 100 acres side by side with the) bare 

 brown fallow of another field of the same size. We stopped at the farm 

 of Mr. G. L. Farrell, who came to this region in the year 1869. Here I 

 saw a field which had been forty years under wheat, without any rotation, 

 without any manure, and is to-day yielding as much as ever, viz., 

 -35 bushels to the acre. This field is summer fallowed every second year, 

 as it is the usual custom in Utah. The soil is a deep clay loam with here 

 and there patches of alkali. This farmer has 200 acres under 

 wheat ; the soil mulch was one inch thick, and the seed bed moist and 

 .mellow. The Cache Valley is fifty miles long by twelve miles broad, and 

 consists of a deep alluvial clay loam. The native vegetation consists 

 .mainly of sage-brush, rabbit-brush, shad-scale, and grease wood. The last 

 two desert plants indicate the presence of alkali, and consequently these 

 lands are usually avoided in the selection of a dry-farm. I was informed 

 that a certain Mr. Ecklund, a Swedish farmer, following the methods 

 .advocated by the College authorities, is now raising 60 bushels of wheat 

 per acre. 



Fall or autumn ploughing is the common custom in dry-farming in 

 Utah .The reasons given for this practice are as follows : — It allows the 

 .Tain and the snow to collect in the rough furrows during the winter-time. 

 It permits the weathering of the soil. It creates a natural reservoir for 

 the storage of water. It tends to make the land mellow. It liberates 

 plant food. 



* The Valley of the Hidden Treasure. So called because the pioneer explorers hid their 

 treasure in this valley. They never found it, but their children discovered that the valley 

 was one of the most fertile in the whole of America. 



