THE DRY FARMING CONGRESS. 



45 



valley where they have farmed, they have made a living for themselves 

 and families for years, and we know if the natives can do that with their 

 shiftless method, the English farmers coming in can do it much more 

 so. We have had another demonstration which has opened the eyes of 

 many people — during the great A. R. U. strike a number of railroad 

 men were thrown out of employment and had no chance for reinstate- 

 ment on any railroad. They cast about for means to make a livelihood 

 and many of them went out on the high Mesa east of Raton without 

 any literature or dry farming propaganda and started to work out their 

 own salvation in the farming line, and to tell you they have been more 

 than successful is putting it mildly. They prove year after year what 

 can be done with dry farming lands. Just one other thing. One o>f the 

 worst things which we have to contend with is the skepticism and un- 

 belief of the old-time residents of that country. 



Prejudice Against Dry Farming. 



"They say, 'This is a stockman's country; we know, we have lived 

 here for years; we have seen it tried time and time again, and it took 

 the hardest work to overcome it' But I am happy to say at least three 

 of the people who were either sceptical openly or doubtful have proven 

 by going on the land which they owned and farming it, that they were 

 wrong. It is our proudest moment when we can take people who come 

 there to these men and say, 'Tell us what your experience has been.' 



Dry Land Area. 



"We have an enormous territory in the area of New Mexico in addi- 

 tion to what has been already taken up, which is still open to entry or 

 sale and in going into that feature of it I think Prof. Tinsley will bear 

 me out in saying that the intelligent farmers who are coming in there 

 today, are the ones who are going to make good. There are people, just 

 as has been said on the platform, today, there are people who are indo- 

 lent and who will not work and they are the people who will make fail- 

 ures, but I contend that that is no more true of farming than of any 

 other class of business. How many men go into the grocery business 

 and make a success? How many men in each town can you think of 

 who are modern and up-to-date in their methods? 



Value of tlie Congress. 



"It is just such gatherings as this that is the salvation of the dry 

 farming movement, in educating the people that they must follow edu- 

 cational methods in order to be successful." 



OKLAHOMA. 



Anders L. Mordt, of Guymon, Oklahoma, responded for that state as 

 follows: 



"It is with peculiar feelings I stand here, given an opportunity to 

 address an assembly of the most important men of the West. Tho 

 cause we are here to promote is growing rapidly and the most intel- 



