Third Annual Session 



THE Stenographic Report of the Third Trans-Missouri Dry Farming 

 Congress given lierewith constitutes the "business" report of the 

 convention, but it is due to the Wyoming Board of Control and 

 citizens of Cheyenne that a word be said regarding the social 

 side of the great meeting and the manner in which the arrange- 

 ments were carried out by the Convention City. 

 Regardless of the fact that one of the most severe blizzards of the 

 year prevented hundreds of delegates from attending the Congress, the 

 total registration reached five hundred, many delegates arriving on 

 belated trains, having spent several days enroute. For twenty-four hours 

 previous to the opening oif the Congress a blinding snow storm raged 

 over the western states, tying up traffic and endangering live stock to 

 such an extent that a large portion of the delegates felt that it was 

 unsafe for them to leave their homes. 



This fact failed to lessen the enthusiasm or interest of the half 

 thousand members of the Congress who assembled from the thirty-five 

 states and six foreign nations represented on the floor of the Congress, 

 and when the great meeting had closed this organization had assumed 

 proporions at once national and international and had laid out for itself 

 a work which, if carried to completion, will open up for settelment 

 millions of now unoccupied acres of productive soil in every section of 

 the world. 



The Wyoming Board of Control did a mighty work in behalf of 

 the West. 



It had planned one of the most complete and practical programs 

 ever given in a convention of this character. It eliminated every 

 subject except that germane to the work of the Congress and in the 

 face of the most discouraging weather conditions which it has been 

 the misfortune of any convention city to experience, its committees 

 entertained the hundreds of guests admirably by meeting the visiting 

 delegations at all trains with free transportation to the place of regis- 

 tration and from thence to their hotels; by furnishing guides to every 

 point in the city, etc. 



The Masonic Temple, the Elks Home and the Industrial Club build- 

 ing were all opened for the week and committees of business men were 

 in each place to entertain guests. 



The program was not all WORK. It included four hours of fun 

 at Turner Hall, where a vaudeville i^erformance and band concert were 

 but auxiliaries to an excellent "spread" furnished by the Entertainment 

 Committee; a reception and ball at the Elks Home and numerous special 

 entertainment features of a most enjoyable nature. Throughout the 

 Congress music was furnished by the famous Garguilo Concert Band. 



Although very late in the year for such an effort, the Board of 

 Control established a new feature of Congress work by giving the First 

 International Dry Farming Exposition and in this was found one of 

 the most valuable features of the convention. Eight states were repre- 

 sented in the competitive displays, and Canada,, with a modest exhibit 

 indicated the interest of our neighboring nations. It is to be hoped that 

 this exhibition was but the beginning of what will quickly assume world 

 wide significance. 



In its wisdom the Congress decided to drop the words "Trans- 

 Missouri" from the title of the organization allowing a wider scope of 

 work for the future. A number of selections of foreign vice presidents 

 were made from among the international delegations present and from 

 this beginning the Dry Farming Congress must necessarily grow into a 

 great world movement which can not complete its work until the 

 problems confronting the arid farmers of the universe have been settled 

 l>ermanently. 



This splendid, philanthropic movement is deserving of the co-oper- 

 ation and support of every seriously minded man in this and every 

 country of the world. It hopes to work hand in hand with every other 

 legitimate development organization in the field in bringing out the best 

 results and in discouraging dishonest exploitation of projects which 

 might result in permanent injury to the upward movement of the splen- 

 did empire west of the Missouri river. 



FRANK C. BOWMAN, 



Cliairman of the Board of Governors of the Executive Committee. 



