Conclusions 
1. Do not assume that all unoccupied land is good farming land 
under any system o f soil-culture or crop farming. 
2. Character of soil, amount of rainfall, method of farming and 
market conditions, on land where irrigation can not he practiced, must largely 
determine the success or failure in all farming ventures in Colorado. 
3. Methods of farming which (a) conserve the soil moisture, (b) pre¬ 
pare a good seed bed, (c) reduce the evaporation to as near the minimum 
as possible, (d) use good vital, acclimated seed, (e) employ a crop rotation 
which has stock foods prominent, contain at least one money crop, (f) and 
the practice of thorough tillage of the ground, often tide the farmer over bad 
years and insure his success in good years. 
4. With all these conditions met, crop failures or low prices will 
prove disastrous some years, unless stock raising is combined with crop 
farming. 
5. Most of the crop should be “driven to market,” in the stock sold 
from the farm. 
6. Natural conditions must be considered in determining whether 
lands can be made more profitable for farming than for grazing purposes. 
7. The first principles of semi-arid farming was enunciated by the 
English farmer, Jethro Tull, nearly three centuries ago, who said “Tillage 
is manure.” 
8. Present day experiences and experiments demonstrate that fining 
the soil has a tendency to render more plant food available. 
9. All so-called soil culture systems, are groupings of few or many 
of the principles of the thorough tillage system, which is the correlated ex¬ 
perience of our best farmers of past and present time. 
10. The Thorough Tillage System of farming considers: 
(a) . Time and manner of plowing the ground. 
(b) . Time and manner of harrowing. 
(c) . Firming the soil and formation of an earth mulch to arrest 
evaporation in semi-arid regions. 
(d) . Summer culture to fine the soil, conserve moisture and pre¬ 
pare a good seed bed for any crop under drouth conditions. 
(e) . Principle of capillarity and how moisture may be conserved. 
(f) . Selection of seed and rate of seeding. 
(g) . Crops which have shown drouth resistant power. 
(h) . Amount of moisture required by plants. 
(i) . Average crop season rainfall for a period of years in lo¬ 
cality where farming is to be practiced. 
(j) . Crop rotations most profitable for the farmer and the land. 
11. Small grain, forage crops and potatoes have been successfully 
grown on the Colorado Divide and in certain sections of eastern Colorado, 
without irrigation. Thorough tillage will undoubtedly increase the areas 
where these crops can be successfully grown in our semi-arid lands. 
12. Our best native grass—Western Wheat Grass, (Colorado Blue 
Stem)—Prof. R. A. Oakley of the Agrostology Division of the Department of 
Agriculture, Washington, D. C., finds will do best on irrigated ground with 
one early irrigation. More water is a detriment. This would indicate we 
may yet be able to induce this grass to make a profitable hay crop on culti¬ 
vated lands where we have ten or more inches of rainfall per annum. 
