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Show DRY FARMIN6 OPPORTUNITIES THOUSANDS OF ACRE'S OF UTAH LANDS BEING CULTIVATED WITHOUT IRRIGATION. It is an Indisputable Fact That P?j Farming Pays, Failures Being Practically Prac-tically Unknown as Result f Scientific Tilling of S01I9. The agricultural future of Utah mue! depend largely upon arid fanning. IS matters not how many millions ct money we may spend on building irri gntion projects and in conserfig the water supply of the state. There art million of acres of our land that cn never be reached by the irrigation canal there are vast empires of soil that will never blossom with anything out. sage, greasewood and cacti, except ex-cept tney be redeemed by "dry-farming" methods. Of our 22,000,000 acres of arable land less than 3,000,000 acres can ever be irrigated the remaining 19,U00,OO0 acres must produce, If at all, with only such moisture as falls directly upon them from the skv Tho iukioinm valley fanner would probably wonder at such a statement. His acres get more of such precipitation than they need. Not so in Utah. Here our desert des-ert lands are likely to receive ten and seldom as much as twenty inches of precipitation in a year. In order to coax from these parched soils a sufficient suffi-cient quantity of farm products to pay for the trouble and yield a profit, scientific methods must be followed. It is not enough to turn the crust and plant the seed. The soil must first be analyzed the seed must be tested and it must be planted and cultivated with due regard to the character of the soil, the average precipitation in the locality being cultivated and the needs of the variety of grain being grown. This prospect is by no means discouraging. dis-couraging. President John A. Wids-toe Wids-toe of the Agricultural college of Utah, says in the preface to h:s able treatise on "Dry Farming" in "The Rural Science Series." "The possibilities of dry farming ire stupendous. In the strength of youth we may have felt envious of the great ones of old; of Columbus looking look-ing upon the shadow of the greatest continent; of Balboa shouting greet Ings to the resting Pacific; of Fathej Escalante, pondering upon the mystery mys-tery of the world, alone, near tht shores of America's dead sea. W need harbor no envyiiigs, tor :n th. conquest of the non-irrigated and nor irrigable desert are offered as fine opportunities op-portunities as the world has known tc the makers and shapers of empires We stand before an undiscovered land through the restless, ascending cu rents, of heated desert air the visici comes and goes. With striving eye the desert is seen covered with bios ioming fields, with churches an homes and schools, and, in the di' tance, with the vision is heard the laughter of happy children. The des art will be conquered. "Nearly six-tenths of the earth's surface receive an annual rainfall o less than twenty inches, and can be reclaimed for agricultural purposes only by irrigation and dry-farming. A perfected world-system of irrigation will convert about one-tenth of this vast area into an incomparably fruit ful garden, leaving about one-half of the earth'f land surface to be re claimed, if at all, by the methods of dry farming. The noble system o: modern agriculture has been con strued almost wholly in countries of abundant rainfall, and its applications are those demanded for the agricul tural development of humid regions. Until recently, irrigation was given scant aitention, and dry-farming, with its world problem of conquering oue-Qalf oue-Qalf of the earth, was not considered. ' The necessity of her people caused Utah to become the pioneer of th west in the adoption of irrigation that was in 1S4T. As early as '' 7'j crops were grown successfully witl'.rut irrigation in Bear River valley, Cache valley and Davis county, in Salt Lake valley. "During the '80s the thoughts of Utah farmers turned to the possibilities possibili-ties of the dry lands, for the growth of the population was more rapid than Ihe construction of canals. Many of the conservative farmers began to realize, too, that wheat production on Irrigated lands, considering the cost of water, did not return a fair Interest on the capital invested. As a result some attempts at dry farming were made in Ihe central part of the state, but with rather discouraging results." Today many llions:inds of acres are being cultivated without the addition of water by artificial means in every valley in the state from Cache valley on the north to the Kanab desert and the Arizona strip on the south, and irnm (he Uintah country on the cast to the N'ovada line. Failures are practically prac-tically unknown. The proportion of 'ield l as dc pe:idi (1 mainly on the in-leiligc-in-e used by the farmer in preparing pre-paring his soil ami planting the peel and the care used by him in oultivTjf-inc oultivTjf-inc ai:d ira! herns the yield. Precipitation Precipi-tation and weather conditions hn-fs liecom of inin'H', if not practica'iy IK '.:sr!b! fjKPii'itifS. The profits havw v;: ri pti (-niew hat, according to t&8 varictlt s of m':iins arown. Mar..y fr-.rniors have n;.t heeded the cratta 'advice givn oui by the expert :iu-Bi t;i!j:-n i-xji'-r's-'. '! have either i plowed 1 1, e o.' 'on d"(-My or not dee-1 dee-1 !y ctid'-h. h:ive luun varieties ! erain not suit" 1 M i!) -ir soil ronJ-! ronJ-! linns and c-Hnisil.- titi.l have refused t ;:ib-indnn nid and 1 1 1 1 1 olita hie niethoia. 1 As a (ens o'r-iir-o they have barely j more thstrs ruM n;'mi.-'--!-.. while their 'neigki'' :s have made handsome profit. . A r i t ! r'irtr f i-nt'oi saec ed on afy o;h r Mi! n a thow.uiily :,. ientific plML It rif-'S r,r: v.vn !lif c-r-nt advanta .-: ; fvr:'!-.-; r-ni" 5. It tent nVsc'' h:ch have been olt I t ?VgTit!y oTercome In all the" centuries d" the past. It is either an Intrepid -ji- foolish farmer, indeed, who will tndtrtake to wring profits from an arid soil without due regard to ap-aoved ap-aoved and test-tried methods. The state of Utah is doing a wonderful won-derful work along the line of encour-iing encour-iing the extension of dry-farmiag -iii-tliuds. At each of the dry farm ex-eriment ex-eriment stations tests are being made n ihe open in the growth of wheat. a;s, corn, barley, rye, alfalfa, pota-'ops, pota-'ops, fruit and vegetables and the re-uiis re-uiis of these experiments are punished pun-ished and distributed without charge o all who are interested. We wish thai fvery reader of this article could have or ready reference and for a study of liy-farming methods, Bulletin No. 112. .repared by Prjofessor Lewis A. Mer-i'l Mer-i'l and published by the Utah Agri 'iiil-ural college experimentistatton. I" contains a report of seven, years' investigation in-vestigation of dry farming method? The farmer who studies this and th -other bulletins issued from the experiment ex-periment stations and profits by the ex periences of the experimenters will 1: able to make his arid acres yield abundance scarcely believable, th':: assisting in the redemption of o r desert empires and in enriching ttu commonwealth. And dry farming pays. That tact i indisputably settled. Presidrn' WIdstoe says 1,000 bushels of dry farm wheat contain as much nutr"lv. matter as 1,025 bushels of v.-fc : .' grown and kept under humid con.v Hons. Utah dry-farming wheat v..:. fain "V2 per cent in weight on bo :v-shipped :v-shipped into eastern markets. Tix: significant fact is worth remembe: ir,.;. it is cunceueu uy an mar lasi yt -r,-was a severe test to dry farnrng f.-e uries because of the low prec!.'1' tlon; yet the Utah yield was good a.ii the profits fair. This year, und-.-r somewhat more favor-note conditions a big crop was harvested. It is estimated that ten to fifteen bushels to the acre will pay the expense 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 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 mil-lions of acres still bristle with sage and greasewood, awaiting colonization. coloniza-tion. Homes for hundreds of thousands thou-sands 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 prevailing pre-vailing notion that new-comers are not welcome among us, and that here, under skies that are ever blue, and almost al-most perpetual sunshine, sheltered 'rom the rigors of the wintry blasts by mountain ranges, which afford an ibundance of fish and game for vacation vaca-tion times and joy supreme for lovers of scenic grandeur, can be found opportunities op-portunities galore for comfort and wealth. Here tb'ey may build up com-nunities com-nunities that will revel in the good things of life. Here labor may re--eive its full reward. Here may will-ne will-ne hearts and sturdy hands come into :.he!r own. |