THE DRY FARMING COuMGRESS. 227 



held intact, the great undeveloped West, and provided transportation for 

 the troops and munitions of war needed for the safety and protection 

 of the pioneers and the'r families then there, and for the brave men and 

 V'Omen who were eagerly awaiting the opportunity to make their homes 

 in the then Great American Desert. 



"Then for about fifteen years, the sturdy settlers battled constantly 

 for existence with Indians, desperadoes, and the elements, and were the 

 \ictors, and demonstrated to the world the boundless resources and fu- 

 ture of the great country west of the Missouri river. 



Land Speculation. 



"Then followed the era of speculation, and the legion of boomer land 

 agents, and the equally -numerous and eager army of speculator^, as 

 ready to buy as the agents were to sell to them, and bought extensive 

 areas of the western prairies, purely for speculation, and with no in- 

 tention of making or trying to have others make any practical use of 

 the land, and without any thought for the morrow. Some of these buyers, 

 unfortunately for the country, and those to whom they sold, disposed 

 of a part of their speculative purchases to persons wholly unprepared to 

 make actual use of the lands and develop them, but were left with a 

 greater portion of the lands ui:on their hands, and disaster followed. 



Early Failures. 



"This speculat on, together with the period of drouth and the plague 

 of grasshoppers, resulted in world-wide, but in my opinion not wholly 

 bad, advertising of the great plains, and particularly of Kansas and 

 Nebraska. This advertising was lamentable and undesirable, and for a 

 rime brought about almost a complete cessation of the settlement ana 

 of the development of the territory involved, yet on the other hand, it 

 placed the names of the states of Kansas and Nebraska, upon the lips 

 of nearly every man, woman and child in the United States, and in the 

 end has proved to be good. 



Conquering the Desert. 



"After this, the actual settlers, with grim determination and with 

 an ever increasing knowledge of the proper means by which to accom- 

 plish it, worked out the problem of a livelihood and a competence, and 

 by theCr efforts, made it jplain that this soil, as rich as any in the world, 

 when properly and systematically tilled, would produce abundantly, and 

 by this, another kind of advertising, brought about a steady influx of 

 real farmers, and laid the groundwork upon which the legitimate land 

 agent was enabled to build up a bona fide business in making sales of 

 these lands to actual occupants, and tillers thereof. 



"In their first efforts to sell their land grants, the railroad com- 

 panies were not over particular whether the lands were sold for specu 

 lation or actual occupation, nor as to the area covered by any individual 

 sale. In fact for a long time, it was a slow and tedious process to make 

 any sales, because of the deep rooted belief in the mind of the general 



