THE DRY FARMING CONGRESS. 



213 



Seed Breeding. 



"The arid region is the most fruitful country in the world and we get 

 remarkably large crops of varieties which have not yet been adapted 

 to the soil and climate. It is my conviction that a few years of plant 

 breeding and improved farming will result in more than doubling the 

 average yields of our staple farm crops. If we use a very conservative 

 estimate of 200,000,000 acres of dry farm lands in the West, one-half 

 of which will be farmed each year, an increase in crop value of but $1.00 

 per acre makes figures large enough to attract our interest and have a 

 most important bearing on our future development." 



PRACTICAL DRY FARMING. 



By George L. Farrell, Ranchman at Smithfield, Utah. 



"Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: I have just twenty minutes 

 in which to talk and I will have to hurry over and not make any prelimin 

 ary. I commenced dry farming in Utah in the year of 1866, forty-three 

 years ago, having come from Iowa where I had been used to farming. 



Causes of Failure. 



"I commenced work on a dry bench just as I used to farm in Iowa. 1 

 broke my soil about three inches deep and worked it over the best I could 

 and sowed my grain. It came up all right, first rate, and grew up about 

 six inches high, and the sun and warm winds came along and it lopped 

 over, wilted and died. The next year I plowed the ground again about an 

 inch deeper, attended it the best I could and sowed my grain. It grew a 

 little higher and died again. The third year I plowed about an inch deeper 

 still and it acted just the same, only it grew a little taller; started to 

 head out and then died. I lost my crop for three successive seasons, but 

 I kept breaking more land and each year putting more in. My neighbors 

 all told me, you are certainly plumb crazy trying to raise grain on a dry 

 bench like that; you will never do it, I used to think sometimes I was 

 a little daft, but perhaps I would get over it- after a while and I was deter- 

 mined to find out for sure whether I could raise grain or not. 



"The fourth year I met a friend of mine who wanted to buy some city 

 lots I owned in Logan. He wanted to trade three fine horses, two weigh- 

 ing about 1,400 pounds each and one about 1,200 pounds and a good set 

 of harness. Previous to this I had been plowing with one yoke of cattle 

 and a ten inch plow. 'Now,' thought I, 'I will trade those lots off, get 

 those horses and get a larger plow and see if I can't do better business.' 

 I did so, and I started to plow a half mile long. I went about ten times 

 around splendidly, but I had some wet grass in spots. It grew about five 

 feet high with roots about as big as a six quart pan and all at once the 

 point of my plow run into the center of one of those roots and the horses 

 gave a jerk and broke the beam off close to the stem. I sat down on the 

 steam of the plow and considered what to do, and I made up my mind 

 to go back to Logan and have a beam put in, two inches wider and two 



