192 



THIRD ANNUAL SESSIONS 



tleiran in Alberta has produced 67 1/^ and another 63% following the lines 

 we have endeavored to lay down in a little book, there is some evidence 

 of the correctness of those principles. Now let me emphasize again. I 

 am not going to take up the mechanical part of this work, the time is too 

 short, but I want to emphasize again, the importance of the physical 

 condition of the soil. You have all noticed in dry seasons the effect 

 of a wagon track or a horse's hoof track. Now why is that? There are 

 several reasons why. By crowding that part hardest together it de- 

 creases the air holding and increases the water holding capacity. The 

 ak* must be there with the water and in the proper quantities. Gentle- 

 men: I have prepared a paper, but I shall not read it. I feel more good 

 can be brought out of this by discussing the pros and cons and the ex- 

 periences of the people who are attempting to carry out scientific prin- 

 ciples. I just want to touch on one point. That refers to the name of 

 th's Congress. 



Dry Farming a Misnomer. 



"I think it is a woeful mistake that it happened to catch the name of 

 dry farming, for dry farming means nothing, or in other words, it means 

 one thing in one place and another thing in another. My. suggestion is 

 Scientific Farmer's Congress. Let it include farmers in all sections of 

 the country. Take the irrigator today and he is just beginning to dis- 

 cover that he is using s.ltogether too much water, and if he used less 

 water with more scientific cultivation, the results would be far better. I 

 would like to relate a few little instances that come under my observa- 

 tion in traveling over the country. One paity down in Texas just to 

 show you how easy it is for a man to be mistaken or to get a miscon' 

 ception of the meaning of some things — a judge at Herford, Texas, became 

 very much interested in the work four years ago and started out on a 

 section close to town to do work by our process Each year he got a 

 little better results. 



Acreage Yields. 



"Last year was a very unfavorable season down there, but he secured 

 36 bushels of wheat to the acre. A neighbor of his, there was an imagin- 

 ery line between them, started out with the idea of beating the Judge 

 because he had farmed all his life, but when the harvest of the two fields 

 came, the neighbor's field yielded 12 bushels, practically one-third of what 

 the Judge's did. He came to the Judge and sa'd: 'I cannot understand it; 

 I kept close tab on my work and I have done a little more than 50 per 

 cent more labor on my field than you have on yours, and I have sown 

 twice as much seed as you did and I ODly have one-third of the result.' 

 That shows there is a time to do these things and that certain principles 

 must be adhered to. 



"To go on premises and do a whole lot of work as a great m^ny peo- 

 ple think we do is a mistake. It is not the increased amount of labor 

 that brings results, but it is doing what we do in the right way at the 

 right t'me. Another instance up in Canada last year. It was our second 



