334 



THIRD ANNUAL SESSIONS 



III. DEMONSTRATED FACTS FROM AUTHORITIVE 

 SOURCES FOR NEW SETTLERS ON THE NON-IR- 

 RIGATED LANDS OF THE WEST. 



1. DEMONSTRATION FARMS AND THEIR VALUE. 



In 1903, the Utah experiment station started a demonstration farm of 

 40 acres near Enterprise, Washington county, Utah. On ail sides of the 

 farm, at that time, was an absolute desert for miies aronnd, with no way 

 of getting water on the land save by cloud precipitation, 



A more unpromising location could scarcely be found anywhere in 

 Utah. But the quality of the soil was good, and the fundamental prin- 

 ciples of "thorough tillage" governed the farming operations practiced 

 for the past five years. 



Acreage Yields. 



The result has been, crops of small grain have each year been grown, 

 averaging 25 to, 38 bushels per acre. 



In this way, every possible doubt as to the success of farming with- 

 out irrigation in that section of Utah has been removed. 



To aid her farmers on non-irrigated lands throughout the state, Utah 

 bas a.ppropriated money, and the state experiment station has established 

 five of these demonstration farms in those sections where the greatest 

 good can be accomplished. A conservative estimate, states that our 

 western states have fully two hundred million acres which cannot possi- 

 bly be irrigated and yet can be made to yield remunerative crop returns 

 through the careful application of the principles of the"thorough tillage 

 system." 



The establishment of demonstration farms, after the Utah plan, in 

 all our western states, would be of very great advantage to show home- 

 steaders what can, and what cannot, be grown in their respective regions, 

 throughout the entire west. 



These demonstration farms should be barometers of crop and tillage 

 methods, found in every country or district, where there is located any 

 appreciable area of land, not susceptible of irrigation with an annual 

 precipitation of less han 20 inches. 



Our Dry Farming Congress will do well to urge the establishment of 

 these farms under either state or national control. While the offices of 

 Irrigration Investigations and Dry Land Agriculture, of U. S. Department 

 of Agriculture have several stations and while Kansas, Nebraska and 

 Utah as well as Wyoming and Montana base state stations that are of 

 great value, we need to multiply their number, and so locate them, that 

 they shall save many settlers from financial shipwreck and be a true 

 beacon of successful home practices for every homeseeker in out great 

 and almost boundless West. 



