THE DRY FARMING CONGRESS. 



209 



"I might add here, that part of this 50,000 acres is in the Medicine 

 Bow Forest Reserve, and the cost for the use of this land from my friend 

 Mr. Pinchot, is nearly as much as the cost of farming this land I above 

 mentioned, with ten thousand times more worry, to say nothing of the 

 humiliation under power rule. With indulgence I will give you an illus- 

 tration of the pessimistic and optimistic family. 



. Increasng Land Value. 



"Mr. Farmer and Mr. Sheepman, we have also enjoyed other privi- 

 leges that might be well to mention. This 5,000 acres in its original 

 state had a value of $2.50 per acre Today we have a number of good 

 families, beautiful farm houses, a good school and church, and this same 

 land has a commercial value of $30 to $50 per acre, and it will not be 

 long until the value will reach the $100 mark. 



"We have other resuts to be proud of, and we are. On this same 

 farm we are speaking of, the proudest day of ifiy life, the happiest day of 

 my life, the most worthy and the one in which I achieved the most 

 good of any day during m-y stay here on earth, was the 28th day of Aug- 

 ust, 1905. We had a farmer's banquet, represented by the greatest body 

 of men ever gotten together in the United States on an occasion of this 

 nature, headed by our Governor, our United States Representative, the 

 Presidents of this great Union Pacific railroad company and of the 

 Laramie Hahn's Peak & Pacific railroad company, U. S. representati-ves 

 of the Agricultural Department, United States Representatives of the 

 State of Nevada, ex-United States Represenatives, bankers, lawyers and 

 business men; and this class of representatives, thirty-five in number. 

 This alone was sufficient to make it the proudest day of any man's life, 

 but still more — the results. 



Acreage Yields. 



*Tt was my pleasure, my pride and my privilege, to conduct this 

 grand party through a field of oats that threshed in this same year, one 

 hundred and thirty-seven bushels to the acre, a field of peas (150 acres) 

 that netted, after every expense being deducted, $18.88 per acre. And 

 more and greater results — in the year 1908 there was in Albany County 

 something like two hundred thousand acres of land sold. Qf this amount 



Land Values. 



eighty thousand acres of it was sold in small quantities running from 

 40 acres to 240 acres, to six hundred different people. Or, in other 

 words, Albany County sold something over three million dollars worth of 

 land in the year 1908. All of this could be credited to this grand day of 

 August 29, 1905. 



"We also could with safety, credit to this day of August 29, 1905, the 

 building of the elevator and flourishing mill at Laramie, which doubtless 

 stands second to none between San Francisco and Omaha — modern in 

 every sense of the word. The mill has a capacity of 125 barrels per day, 

 and the elevator a capacity of 50,000 bushels per day. The machinery 

 is so modern that we have unloaded a car of grain in forty minutes. 



