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Show N0 LONGER A THEORY public Now Believes Dry Farming as Fact. Has Realized Degree of Success Justifying Justi-fying Prediction of Well-informed MeBeset With Hardship and Disappointment. .. jr NEWEI.L, Director, U. S. Rec-tBy Rec-tBy ' Initiation Service.) The public now believes in dry farming. It has passed through the stages of ridicule, ot mere toleration and finally of over-enthusiastic promo-.inn promo-.inn and Is settling down as an ac complished fact. It has suffered both from neglect on the one hand and from over-zealous friends on the other. The crop statistics of 1910 are showing show-ing that it is no longer a theory but has realized a degree of success justifying justi-fying the predlcticxf c well-informed, men. The preciiee ot agriculture in the arid regions has been, and Rtill is, to a large extent, a matter of pioneering. pioneer-ing. Like other pioneering- enter-prizes, enter-prizes, the practice of this new form of agriculture has been beset with much disappointment and hardship, especially on the part of those who have been illy prepared or badly advised. ad-vised. Not every man is capable of being a successful farmer any more than he is capable of being a successful success-ful carpenter or groceryman. It may be claimed that a higher degree ot intelligence, skill, energy and etrength is required of a successful pioneer farmer than is necessary for the mechanic or tradesman. It is unfortunate that these pioneer enterprises of developing the arid regions, re-gions, either by irrigation or without It have always attracted a great many men who have not succeeded in other occupations. Many of these men are predestined to failure, because of lack of physical strength, of energy and especially of what people call "common "com-mon sense." They are easily attracted attract-ed by the novelty of the situation, and forgetting that there are many laws of nature and rules of practice to be observed, attempt the impossible and become quickly discouraged. It is this feature which has been particularly conspicuous during 1910, as the climatic cli-matic conditions of aridity have severely se-verely asserted themselves and many would-be farmers have learned to their sorrow that arid agriculture is an art whose rules cannot be disobeyed dis-obeyed with impunity. In all affairs of life the failures are usually more Instructive than the successes. suc-cesses. It has been interesting to note that in nearly every instance the failures, both in irrigation and in arid agriculture have resulted from disobedience dis-obedience or neglect of known laws. Students of conditions have predicted certain failures on the part of most ill-directed efforts and have shown that while an occasional success might be made through chance, yet in the long run, the pioneer farmers farm-ers TTlllKt follow the rules laid down or suffer the consequence. One of these has been the thorough tilling of the soil and the storage in it of all of the moisture available. In traveling through the arid west, it is noticeable how few of the pioneer farmers have properly tilled the fields, and how many have simply broken up the top soil and allowed it to dry out instead of properly pulverizing pulver-izing it and thus holding the scanty moisture and humus from beiDg dissipated dissi-pated by the winds. The results have illustrated the old maxim of the unwisdom un-wisdom of putting all of the eggs into one basket. Case after case has been noted where, in the eagerness lor large areas, the dry farmer has attempted at-tempted to put in hundreds of acres of one crop and has neglected to till a few acres where a little water might be had for artificially moistening the soil. |