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Show I DRY FARMING IN UTAH IS PROFITABLE. Does dry farming In llah pa;. ? Thomas Wnltaker, with t?nty years experience, answers emphatically, yes. I Mr. Whltoker It's 111 acres of dry farm land on the east side of tho Promontory rune about nine miles north of the Ogden-Lucin cutoff Last year he produced 183 bushels of al-fglfa al-fglfa seed on thirteen acres of land. fOf which he receivcid $1,025. Ho had the hay from the first culling of al- i folia rnd good pasturage after the seed had been harvested His wheat land averaged thirty bushels to the I acre, lie has neighbors who claim a larger yield of both seed and grain, J hut his results are sufficiently large to prove th.it. dry (arming in this i I state Is a n:03t invitirjg field. Mr W'hitflUer wa6 asked if any of 1 hi land wero irrigated and his reply was aighlfloant 'I would not use an irrigation stream on my alfalfa or wheat, if I could. The application of water ou the surface causes the alfalfa roots to spread at shallow depth instead of becoming deep rooted and the pbnts are never as hardy under those conditions con-ditions as when the roots are trained to go to depth after moisture " He employs a spring-tooth harrow and, In early spring and alter each cutting or alfalfa. breaks up the soil, Ihe dust muUt produced conserving the moisture. I have the weevil In ray rilfalfa." f. he oald, 'hut am not distvirbed. The r weevil is rendered hBrmlcsa by bar-i bar-i owing at the right time end the ex-1 ex-1 trr. cultivating which the bug forced, 1 causes a more vigorous growth of al-I al-I falfa." Dry farming certainly Is teaching J the farmers of I tab that a compare -' lively small precipitation Is necessary neces-sary to as-.ure profitable crops, and, furthermore, that on nearly all the J Irrigated areas ton much water is applied There are hundreds of thousands ! of acres of land similar to that on I t lie cast side pf the Promontory mountains. whi h would be made- to ! viold abundantly. If the slate had I more fanners of the CQergy and knowledge of the science ol dry farm possessed by Thomaa Whiiaker. The day Is coming when the dry ; farms of Utah will return a greater revenue than the irrigated lands. |