312 



THIRD ANNUAL SESSIONS 



that is convertible into cash at the nearest station or at the nearhy 

 factory for the making of butter and cheese. 



Forage Crops. 



It may be said that one of the greatest drawbacks to farming is the 

 lack of ready cash every day in the year. This condition never exists 

 on a farm where there is a dairy herd. Speaking more particularly of the 

 Great Plains country, east of the Rockies, there has been but one or two 

 years in the last 20 or 25 when there could not have been enough feed 

 raised on the average farm to support a herd of from 15 to 20 cows in 

 fair shape. But there have been many years, when wheat, corn or other 

 cereals on which these people depend, have been utter failures. 



The great reg'on has since the early etghties, been twice populated 

 and depopulated; and now, for tJie third time, the people are again pos- 

 sessing themselves of the land. If the third exodus does not sometime 

 take place, it will be because the present generation is wiser than their 

 predecessors and because they practice improved methods of farming, 

 which will include dairying as a comi:onent part. 



6. METHODS OF DRY FARMING IN UTAH. 



Abstract of address by Prof. 1^. A. Merrill, Salt Lake City. 



I have heard, even in our state, where we are farming successfully, 

 a great many farmers say they depend very much upon May and June, 

 when the showers come. I want to say, if you will follow this through, 

 the years that we get results are the years when we have light rains 

 during the growing season. 



Precipitation. 



The rains which come in May or June should be light, simply be- 

 cause that is the period we want to be our period of drouth, if we are 

 going to have any period of drouth. You want the roots of the plants 

 to extend down deep into the ground and not spread out over a large 

 area, and if the rains come in the early spring months, the roots have a 

 tendency to spread out near the surface, and, if the water is very near 

 the surface we get a shallow rooted plant. We want the plants to have 

 a tendency to send their roots down deep into the soil and for that rea- 

 son we don't care whether the rains come during that particular season 



Conserving IVIoisture. 



of the year, and, in fact, would rather they would not. It has been dem- 

 onstrated that we can go for months without any rainfall, at all, if we 

 have the moisture stored in the soil. There are places in this ^state 

 where they have been storing and conserving moisture for 10 to 20 years, 

 keeping it stored up in the soil. When the plant is put into that soil, 

 there is sufficient moisture to carry it through, whether it gets any rain 

 or not. That is the idea we are trying to follow in dry farming in Utah. 



