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THIRD ANNUAL SESSIONS 



WYOMING. 



Prof. J. D. Towar, director of the State Experiment Station, Uni- 

 versity of Wyoming, spoke as follows: 



"I want to congratulate this audience on being able to withstand ko 

 many dry farmer speeches. I promise you I am going to give you a little 

 diversion this afternoon. I want to say a Word or two to the irrigatronisls. 

 1 think in all the speeches that have been made and in all that are to 

 follow on the program there is scarcely a word of interest to the irri- 

 gat "on farmer, and I have chosen for a very brief talk a few words in 

 regard to dry farming principles as applied to irrigation practices. 



Dry Farming and Irrigation. 



"The fundamental principles of dry farming consists in agricultural 

 practices which will tend to conserve soil moisture and make the very 

 most for cultivated crops of a limited supply of rainfall. While the so- 

 called systems of dry farming are supposed to be practiced in the semr- 

 arid regions only, it has been found by actual practice and scientific ex- 

 periments that the dry farmer's methods apply with equal force to the 

 farmer who is growing crops in those sections which are assumed to 

 have regularly a sufficient amount of rainfall. 



iVIethod Useful Everywhere. 



"The potato grower in New England, the orchardist in New York 

 and Michigan, the com growers in the great corn belt of the Middle 

 West, and, in fact, all who till the soil, must respect the practices of 

 the dry farmer, for they cannot hope to secure the largest return from 

 their land and their labor without employing religiously and thoroughly 

 the principles of moisture conservation as laid down by the advocates of 

 dry farming. 



Protection from Drouth. 



"There is no part of the Middle West where the annual precipita- 

 tion is 30 inches and above which does not at some time of the year or 

 at frequent seasons suffer severe loss by reason of long and protracted 

 drouths, and these farmers have learned that by employing the principles 

 of moisture conservation as laid down in the pr'nciples of tillage which 

 we are practicing in the semi-arid West, they can defeat the attacks of 

 these dry spells, which, rn the past, have wrought ruin and destruction 

 to so many of their crops. Indeed, it is a common observation among the 

 farmers of the humid sections that the supply of moisture for certain 

 periods of the year is much better for the crops if obtained from the con- 

 served moisture of the sorl rather than from the renewed and excessive 

 supplies from summer rains. 



Improved Quality. 



"The quality of com, potatoes, and many of the cereal grains is 

 vastly better where less rain is obtained and the moisture supplied 

 through the agency of proper cultivation. 



