138 



THIRD ANNUAL SESSIONS 



witli no rain or snow at all and When I visited it, the tallest straw was 

 Ozen with the top of my head. 



"HeTB are two instances, one in which crops produced practically 

 maximum yields after a most unusual drouth of eight months and an- 

 other 300 miles north where the elevation is about 4,000 feet and the 

 rye' lived under supposedly impossible conditions. 



Dry Farming Not New. 



"Since my advent in this state, there has been brought to light the 

 fact that dry farming is and has been successfully carried on for tho 

 past 15 to 20 years in various parts of the state, but I want to direct your 

 attention to a very important point in connection with some of these 

 farmers. A great many of them have raised as high as 50 bushels per 

 acres of oats, year after year without farming, in other words, the grain 

 was sown by hand on the stubble and was either covered with a disc or 

 corn cultivator. What cannot these men do by intelligent up-to-daLa 

 methods? 



Soil Study 



"There is another most important matter for the farmers who are 

 with us to consider and that is there are many varieties of soils in 

 Wyoming and the man farming must study his soils as well as general 

 conditions, to be successful. We will have to restore that most im- 

 portant necessity, humus, to some soils earlier than many of us think, 

 if we want to have them in the right conditions to hold moisture. This 

 may be done by plowing under green manures. 



Dry Farming and irrigation. 



"Many irrigators are finding out that methods recommended for the 

 dry farmer apply equally well to them and that to get maximum crops, 

 deep plowing, less irrigation and more irritation or cultivation, pays. 

 We know beyond a doubt that we can save moisture in the soil and 

 that we are obtaining grains and grasses which are adapted to our cli- 

 matic conditions. Another great help to our crops is that about 75 per 

 cent, of our precipitation comes from April 1, to September 30, just 

 ';^-hen vegetation needs it. 



"When we of Wyoming look upon those great states west of us 

 and see what they are doing in the matter of dry farming, we cannot 

 understand why we connot do equally well if not better. No doubt there 

 are problems to be solved in some parts of our state but who ever heard 

 of an American but what could and would stick to his proposition and 

 win out, if he could see a glimmer of light ahead of him. We must cut 

 out the word, 'can't,' seriously study our conditions and recollect that 

 only a few years ago this state was part of what was known as the 

 Great American Desert. Desert no longer because we can and will prove 

 to the whole world that by utilizing our intelligence and opportunities 

 we can use our fertile lands for what no doubt they were intended, and 

 that is, to support a part of our great nation. History repeats itself. 

 State after state has gone through pracfcally what Wyoming is now un- 



