Show DRY FARMING IS MISNOMER Wrong Impression of Term Taken by Surprisingly Large Number of Western Homeeeekers It Is reported from tho recent session ses-sion of the Dry Farming congress at Billings Mont that a great railway system threatened to withdraw financial finan-cial support from tho congress unless It found a better name for Itself than Dry Farming congress Tho argument was that the name was misleading as to the purpose of the organization which Is briefly to promote scion tide soil cultivation of those sections of tho west that have no desire to lr Igato or means of Irrigation says Pacific Monthly A suprlslngly largo number of prospective western home seekers have somehow gained tho impression that dry farming means Just what It says and that when wo speak of dry farming land wo essentially essen-tially mean absolutely arid land and when wo speak of dry farming crop wo mean n crop that has no moisture thirst and that would grow as well In ho middle of Sahara as anywhere else Of course those who have taken ho trouble to Investigate tho matter ho least bit know that dry farming 10 only a relative term and a term that could as well bo applied to a semlhumld section as a semiarid one indeed In many instances the dry farming land of tho west receives more molsturo during tho growing season than do some of the further cast Bocallcd humid sections There ore many sections of tho socallcd dry arming west that receive from 15 to 30 Inches of rainfall during tho year an ample amount of moisture to grow the common crops of tho west If only a little care Is used In conserving con-serving this moisture Tho dry formIng form-Ing movement then Is an attempt to demonstrate methods of conserving moisture and making tho host pos Bible uso of It It should be remembered remem-bered too that perhaps as many or moro crops have een ruined by too much moisture as by too little One of tho hardest facts to Impress upon tho new Irrlgatlonlat of tho west Is that there Is a maximum amount of water that can be used on his land to prevent crop Injury Tho minimum mini-mum amount of moisture necessary to successful agriculture Is decreasing proportionally to the advance of the scientific dryfarming movement |