THE DRY FARMING CONGRESS. 



119. 



take us years. It is no use to start in on milch cows. The settlement 

 of New Mexico has been so rapid that it has forced the sheep and cattle 

 industry entirely off the field, simply crowded the range cow out, and 

 the ranchmen have to go over into the drier districts to pick up cattle 

 for feeding. There is littl© use for people with a comparatively small 

 yield of stuff to undertake to feed that to low grade milch cows, for 

 there are not enough milch cattle in New Mexico. If we depended on 

 local bred stock we would not have, in the next ten years, enough to 

 supply half the farms with milch cows. We haven't enough money to 

 go outside and buy stock, and the money that comes for future buying 

 of that stock has got to be m.ade out of the home crops that we raise; 

 therefore, the cry in New Mexico is for money crops, and Indiana corn 

 is answering that purpose very well. 



Dry Land Cotton. 



"We are trying cotton, and year before last there were several hun- 

 dred bales of cotton raised there that represented one-third to one-quarter 

 of a bale per acre. It was very good short staple upland cotton. 



Broom Corn. 



"Broom corn is another crop that is promising. They grow a good 

 grade of broom corn, but don't know how to cure it, and another thing' 

 is the lack of knowledge of the business side. The farmers do not Icnow 

 how to handle their stuff on the market after they get it. 



Finding a Market. 



"Today in Roosevelt county there are over one hundred car loads of 

 corn ready for shipment, and those people didn't start to look for rates 

 until a few weeks ago. They didn't know where it was going or what 

 they were going to do with it. The market question confroints every 

 locality, and it is a problem that we have got to let settle itself. Broom 

 corn is a good crop for them, and the Mexican bean is another good crop 

 and a safe one; if they can get anything at all, they can get the Mexican 

 bean. 



Forage Crop. 



"Then comes the forage crop, so that whenever it is a bad year, they 

 can get considerable forage, and I have seen Siberian millet mature there 

 in seventy days, so I cannot see how we can get a system so that we 

 cannot make enough feed to run what livestock we have half through 

 the year. I believe while using good judgment we can always make a 

 fair existence and when I say that I know how dry it has been there 

 some years. 



Corn. 



"Thej'' are farming today on a spot where a man I know personally 

 lost 8,000 sheep in 1904, but we have learned since on that same identical 

 strip of country that a man can get as high as 50 bushels of corn to the 

 acre. You see we have considerable possibilities along dry farming lines. 



