Dry Farming In Colorado 
5 
farming regions we have at least three types of precipitation— 
the spring and early summer, the evenly distributed, and the win¬ 
ter season precipitation. In most of the Colorado dry-farming 
sections, the spring and early summer type of precipitation pre¬ 
vails; that is, the precipitation commences to increase in March 
and increases month by month until July, when it decreases rap¬ 
idly for the rest of the year. Such a type of precipitation throws 
most of the rainfall during the growing season. This type of pre¬ 
cipitation prevails thruout the Colorado plains, the region lying 
east of the Rocky Mountains, and extending to the eastern border 
of the State. The same type of precipitation prevails in most of 
the foothills and intermountain dry-farming sections, altho there 
are localities in the mountains and on the Western Slope where 
the precipitation largely occurs during the winter season. A dif¬ 
ferent type of dry farming and a different set of farm crops may 
be grown in regions having the spring and early summer type of 
rainfall. Here cultivated crops, grains, and diversified farming, 
are easily possible. 
Where the Avinter type of precipitation prevails, as it does in 
small areas, the types of crops which may be grown are limited to 
those which are capable of growing and maturing on the stored 
water supply of the soil. 
COLORADO DRY FARMING REGIONS 
The dry-farming regions of Colorado may be easily divided 
into the “plains”, which comprise the area lying east of the moun¬ 
tains, the “foothills”, which comprise the valleys and swales in the 
foothill regions of the mountains, and “intermountain districts”. 
The plains region is characterized by great extremes of tem¬ 
perature and moisture. The climatic conditions of the foothills 
and intermountain regions are most equable, but the season is 
short, due to high altitude. Precipitation is usually, tho not al¬ 
ways, greater, but evaporation is nearly always much less than 
on the plains. Consequently, the plains furnish the most difficult 
dry-farming problems. 
The foothills and intermountain regions present problems 
largely of precipitation and length of season, while the plains pre¬ 
sent problems of evaporation, precipitation, violent changes of 
temperature and violent extremes of wind velocity. 
THE PLAINS 
Climate and Topography .—Since the plains constitute an area 
of about twenty-two million acres, possibly three-fourths of the 
entire possible dry-farming area of Colorado, and since they pre¬ 
sent most of the problems, the climate and topography of this 
