Show U all capi om m 11 amp via ats 6 U P r 81 m no 0 1 U 1 1 I ae the agricultural future fatur cof of utah atall m must s t dep depend a nd largely upon arid farming it I 1 matters ma tt e rv not abt how many millions of money we may spend on building irrigation projects and in conserving r the wafer supply of the state thore are million of acres of our land that can never lie be reached by the irrigation canal the there ro are vast empires of soil wat tat will never blossom with bif h anything but sage greasewood and cacti ex cep cepl they be redeemed by dry farm ing methods as I 1 of our acres of bf arable land less than han 1000 acres can ever be irrigated I 1 oed the t ie remaining acre acres must produce if at all with only ou such ch moisture as falls directly upon them from the sky the mississippi valley farmer would probably wonder at such a stator statement his hl acres got get more of such precipitation than they need not so in utah hero our desert outlands lands are likely to receive ten and seldom as much as twenty inches of precipitation in a yearn year in order to fo coax coad from these parched soils i a sufficient quantity of farm pro products du acts to pay for the trouble and yield a profit scientific methods must be followed it i is no noti t enough to tu turn rn the 66 crust anji plant the 06 seed the soil must first cirit be analyzed the seed must be tested and it must be planted and cultivated with due regard to the character of the soil boil the average precipitation in the locality being cultivated and the needs of the variety of grain being grown this prospect Qt is by no moans means discouraging C cou oura raging gingi pre president z ident john A widstoe of the agricultural co college il age of utah P says n the preface to his able treatise on dry farming farmin 9 in the rural science series the possibilities ofey of dry farming are aie stupendous id n tile the strength of youth we may hava felt e envious of the great ones ov of ald of columbus looking upon the shadow of the greatest continent of balboa shouting greet ings to the resting pacific fib of rather father escalante pondering upon the mystery of the world alone neat near the shores of bf americas dead sea we need harbor no envy ings for in the conquest odthe of the non ron irrigated and nan irrigable desert are offered as fine opportunities port unities agthe as the world has hag known to we the makers and shapers of empires we stand before an undiscovered land through the rest restless ascend ascending in g currents of bt heated desert beiert air the vision comes and goes with striving eyes the desert is seen covered co vered with blos coming fields with churches and homes and schools and in the distance with the vision is heard the laughter of happy haply children childr en thet the des er twill be conquered ered nearly six tenths of the earths eurlace r receive an annual i rainfall of less than twenty inches and can be reclaimed tor for agricultural purposes only by and aid dry farming A perfected world system of irrigation will convert about one tenth of this vast area into an all incomparably fault ful garden leaving about one half of the earths land surface to be reclaimed it if at all by the methods of dry farming the noble system of modern agriculture has been construed almost wholly in countries of abundant rainfall and its applications are those demanded for the agricultural development of humid reg legions lOns until recently irrigation yas was given scant attention and dry farming with its world problem of conquering one half of odthe the eartle was not considered the necessity of her people caused utah to become the plo pioneer neer of the west in the adoption of irrigation that was in 1847 As early as 1870 crops were nvere grown successfully without irrigation in bear river valley cacho cache valley and davis coilty in salt lake valloyd during the Us tho the thoughts of W M abla riders turned to the possibilities ao 10 of athe dry lands for the growth of the population was more rapid than the c ot S of cah canals alq many of the conservative farmei farm ri began to realize too that wheat production on irrigated lands considering conald ering the cost of water did not return v a fair interest on the capital invested As a result res i alt some gome attempts hodr at dry y farming 9 were made in the central part of tho state att with rather discouraging results today many thousands of acres acrea are being cultivated without the addition of water by artificial means in every valley in the state from cache valley on the orth north to the kanal desert and the arizona strip on the south and from tile the country on the east to the nevada lino line failures are practically unknown the proportion of yield has depended mainly on the intelligence telli gence used by the f farmer in pre paring lils hla soil and plaN plant lne the sae seed ld and the carje care used by him b I 1 n cultivating and gathering the yield precipe Preci pl tation and weather conditions have haye become of minor it if not practically Y negligible quantities the probus have varied somewhat according to the varlet varieties ios of grains grown many farmers have not heeded ie gratis adal advice co given out by the experiment arif station dx experts they have either plowed the soil soll too deeply or not deeply enough have grown valet varieties les of grain not suited to their soil conditions and climate and have refused toi to abandon old an and d unprofitable methods As a consequence they have barely more than paid expenses while their neighbors have made handsome profits arid farming cannot succeed d on any other than a thoroughly scientific does not have the great advantage that humid farming enjoys enjoy ki lt it presents obstacles which have been only slightly over overcome bome in all the cen centuries of the past it Is either an intrepid or foolish farmer ind indeed e ed who will undertake to wring profits from an arid soil without duo due regard t to approved and test tesi tried methods the state of utah Is doing a wonderful darful work along the line of encouraging tile the extension of dry farming methods at each of the dry farm ex pediment perl peri ment stations tests are being mado made in the open in the growth of wheat oats corn barley rye alfalfa potatoes fruit and vegetables and the results of these experiments ar are a published and distributed without charge to all who are interested we wish that every reader of this article could have v e for ready reference anador and for a study of dry farming methods bulletin NO prepared by professor lewis A mer rill and published by the utah agricultural bult college experiment tta station flon it contains a report of seven years investigation vesti gation i of dry farming nith methods the farmer who studies this and the other bulletins issued from the experiment peri ment stations and profits by the experiences perien ces of the experimenters will be able to make his arid acres yield an abundance scarcely believable belfe vable thus assisting in the redemption of our desert empires and in enriching the r commonwealth and dry farming pays that thai fact is indisputably settled president widstoe stoe says 1000 bushels bus liels ot of dry jarm farm wheat contain as much nutritive matter as 1025 bushels of wheat grown and kept under humid conditions utah dry farming wheat will gain 2 per cent in ig weight on being shipped into eastern markets that significant fact is worth remembering it is conceded by all that last year was a severe test to dry farmin farming gt theories a because or of the low precipitation yet th the eUtah utah yield was good and the profits fair this year under und er somewhat more favora favara oie iole condl conditions eions a big crop was harvested it is estimated that ten to fifteen bushels to the acre will pay the ex pense of farming by dry farming methods where everything is hired twenty bushels yield a fair profit and forty bushels amount to a bonanza A great boon to the commonwealth isreen is seen in the enlarged homestead or smoot act hundreds of citizens of the state have taken up half sections and some hundreds of settlers have taken up residence in utah but millions of acres still bristle with sage and greasewood awaiting colonization homes for hundreds of thousands of denizens of the crowded east can be made in these now desert wastes it is up to the state of utah and her people to lend encouragement to immigration and to dispel the pre notion that newcomers new comers are not welcome among us and that here under skies sides that are ever blue and almost perpetual sunshine sheltered from the rigors of 0 the wintry blasts by mountain ranges which afford an abundance of fish ash and game for vacation times and joy supreme for lovers of scenic grandeur can can be found opportunities por port tunit unities ibs galaro for bor comfort and wealth here they may build up corn m muni ties that wa will 11 revel in the good 00 things of life here labor may receive 0 cc lve its full reward here may will ing hearts and sturdy hands 6 come in e I 1 inte iff their own I 1 |