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THIRD ANNUAL SESSIONS 



might bring into play all the eloquence of all the minds in this assembly, 

 if I had it, and I could not do more than justice to my thoughts of Colorado 

 and the future of its dry land districts. Failures, in part or in whole, 

 there may be now and then. Such failures are found everywhere, no 

 matter what your occupation. One of the keenest minds of Wall Street, 

 whose possessor is regarded as the richest man in Wall Street, is au- 

 thority for the statement that the best he can do is to get the market 

 right four times in seven. The Colorado dry farmer can guess the 

 season much better than that, and he doesn't risk as much money in 

 the process, either." 



THE GOVERNOR OF COLORADO. 



MR. McCOLL (presiding) : "I take great pleasure in announcing 

 that we are to have the honor of hearing Governor John F. Shafroth of 

 Colorado. I beg to introduce the Governor." 



GOVERNOR SHAFROTH: "Gentlemen of the Dry Farming Con- 

 gress, I am sure as we have heard such an eloquent speech from the 

 delegate from Colorado, it is useless for me to say anything. It seems 

 an irony of fate that the thing which we most desire for dry farming, 

 moisture, should have prevented the large attendance which we ought to 

 have at this Congress. Colorado, my friends, has been one of the pio- 

 neer states in dry farming. 



Objects of Congress. 



"The great object and aim of this movem.ent is to devise some way 

 to conserve the water in the ground and that is the problem you have 

 to solve. How can it be done? How can it be done to the best advan- 

 tage? Another important question is: 'what seeds you can plant, that 

 will endure through the dry seasons?' 



Soil Treatment. 



*T have noticed and I have read a little about the Campbell system 

 and the Cooke system, as it is called here., and they possess virtues. 

 There can be no doubt that the packing of the surface of the earth after 

 storms induces evaporation, which evaporation does not exist after a 

 blanket of pulverized earth is placed on the soil. And that, of course, 

 retains the moisture in the earth and that retention may not be as great 

 as we would like, but notwithstanding that, it will raise crops in this 

 arid country. 



Dry Land Area. 



"We have a great area of land lying east of the Rocky Mountains to 

 the One Hundredth Meridian, for this is the Meridian which congress 

 has recognized as the dividing line between arid land and productive 

 land. That area consists probably of seventy-five or eighty million acres 

 abftve ditch, that apparently cannot be irrigated under any conditions. 

 It is an empire in itself, and one of these days we will find that great 

 area of land will produce large and bountiful crops. 



