THE DRY FARMING CONGRESS. 



187 



both shade and fruit trees and of having a garden; the possibilitres of a 

 water supply for house and stock and also for irrigating the garden, and 

 the knowledge of how to realize on these possibilities will do very much 

 toward maki'ng the dry farms an attractive place to the home builder. 

 However, there appears to be other tendencies at work. 

 Size of Farms. 



"It is said that in the Pendleton district of Oregon, and in the Big 

 Bend country in Wiashington, the tendency is for the small farmer to 

 sell out to the large land owner. The tendency toward the large farm 

 is also noticed m Utah, where, however, they take the form of co-oper- 

 ative farms, the land of several owners being thrown together to 

 make one large tract which is then handled by large labor-saving 

 machinery. 



improved Machinery. 



"It is on these large farms where the steam or gasoline engine takes 

 the place of horses in plowing, cultivating and seeding. In harvest time 

 the same power pulls a combined harvester and thresher over the field 

 and later draws the grain to market. The evidence at hand seems to 

 indicate that this method of farm practice in grain growing on the large 

 farm may cut the cost of production nearly rn half as compared with 

 horse power and the small machinery used on the small farm. In the 

 dryer districts when water for household use is scarce and hard to get, 

 these large outfits may profitably handle lands that could not be farmed 

 successfully as a small farm and this may be where the large farm with 

 large and powerful machinery may extend the borders of the dry land 

 crop area beyond the abilities of the small holder and thus be a means 

 of increasing immensely the crops and the wealth of the western country. 

 There is room here for further investigation and study. 

 Stock Fattening. 



"In the more favorable districts the small farmer has some advan 

 tage as he can take up a diversified agriculture. The production of ani- 

 mals and animal products on the farm and the feeding of the grain and 

 fodder grown to the live stock of the farm will give a supply of manure 

 which will add humus to the soil and maintain production at a higher 

 level than on the exclusive grain farm, which the large farm is likely to 

 be. I look therefore, for both types of farms to aid in the development 

 of the country, each in time finding its appropriate fields. The large 

 farm will develop m the more level and dryer districts and the smaller 

 farm in the more rolling and better watered districts, as we find illus- 

 trated in the actual settlement of the country. 



Immigration Increasing. 



"The settler is moving out on the benches and into the valleys of this 

 western country. The country is being rapidly homesteaded and even 

 many large ranches are being divided up to satisfy the land hungry set- 

 tler. The government irrigation projects and also various state and pri- 

 vate irrigation enterprises are attracting their quarto of people. 



