Show DRY FARMING IS MISNOMER wrong impression of term taken by 7 f surprisingly large number of western Home seekers it is reported from the recent ses sea slon sion of the dry farming congress at billings mout mont that a great railway system threatened to withdraw y cial support from the congress unless it found a better name for itself than dry farming congress the argument r was that the name was misleading as to the purpose of the organization 4 which is briefly to promote soil cultivation of those sections of the have no demike to ir or means of irrigation says js pacific monthly A surprisingly singly largo j number of prospective western homo home seekers have somehow gained the 1 impression that dry farming means just what it says and that wion when we speak of dry farming land we essentially mean absolutely arid land andi and when we speak of dry farming crop we mean a crop that has no moisture thirst and that would grow as viell vell in 1 the middle of sahara as anywhere else of course those who have taken ft the trouble to investigate the matter the least bit know that dry farming Is only a relative term and a term jl i that could as well be applied to 0 semi humid section as a cemi semiarid arld one indeed in many instances the dry farming land of the west receives more moisture during the growing season than do some of the further east called so humid sections there are many sections of the called so dry i farming west that receive from 15 16 to 30 inches of rainfall during the year an ample amount of moisture to J grow the common crops of the west vest if only a little care is used in conr coar serving this moisture the dry farm ing movement then Is an attempt to J dO demonstrate methods of conserving y moisture and making the best pos 1 A 1 sible use of it it should be remembered too that perhaps as many or more crops have been ruined tty by toot too much moisture as by too little ono one v of the hardest facts to impress upon the new of the west is that there thare Is a maximum mail mum amount of oc water that can be used on his land to prevent crop injury the minimum amount of moisture necessary to successful agriculture is decreasing pio proportionally to the advance of tha scientific dry farming movement |