224 



THIRD ANNUAL SESSIONS 



No Fixed Rules. 



"But I think he has got sense enough to understand that he can't 

 lay down fast rules by which this whole country from the Atlantic to 

 the Pacific could be cultivated. It would be idiotic to say he has no 

 more sense than that. But one of two things will maintain anywhere, 

 capillary action and mulch to cover the top of the ground. WTiat I want 

 to say rs, what few things we do know let's hang to it, and not say we 

 don't know anything. Mind you, these men who are studying this mat- 

 ter scientifically dig up a whole lot of things that don't interest you and 

 me at all. I found that out, but every now and then they do bring up 

 something that is valuable. Then say you take that information and go 

 and get some more, but don't throw away what you have got. I just 

 add it on to what I have received before. That is all I have got to say. 

 I could give a good many things, but when a man is past sixty years he 

 gets to learn that what he doesn't know would make a volume and what 

 he does know would make a very small book." 



DRY LAND AGRICULTURE IN NORTHERN CHINA AND 



MANCHURIA. 



By Prof. F. N. Meyer, Foreign Exploration Agent, U. S. Department 

 of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 



MR. MEYER: "Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: It affords 

 me great pleasure indeed to have the opportunity to tell you what the 

 Department of Agriculture is doing in the way of introducing plants and 

 seeds that might be valuable to this section here. It has been my duty 

 ■ to be out in China and Manchuria for the last three years, and I have 

 discovered in those countries some methods of dry land agriculture that 

 have been claimed now adays as being new, being invented by some of 

 the people here. 



Dry Farming Very Ancient. 



"But I can tell you the Chinese have been practicing dry land agri- 

 cultural methods for the last three thousand years. As Mr. Martin of 

 Texas informed you, certain Indians in Mex'co are practicing the so- 



Campbell System. 



called Campbell method and have been practicing it for the last thousand 

 years, and it is the very same in China, So now I will tell you how China 

 and Manchuria do these things. I will first tell you what the cb'mate is. 



Climatic Conditions. 



"The climate is more or less like it is here in the Dakotas. The 

 winter is very cold and dry and little snow falls. The summers are very 

 hot and dry and the rain doesn't start until the latter part qf June, 

 sometimes July. 

 Soil Treatment. 



"Now what do the Chinese do? They plow their land in the fall and 



