Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1906-12-27
GOVERNMENT TO CONDUCT EX.
PERIMENTS in DRY FARMING

The advocates of dry farming have
won q great victory over the skepti
cism of the irrigationist and the eastern
farmers. and the dry farming PROPOSE,
| ton must no longer be considered rs
merely a scheme to sell land on the
| great plains, for the success being at
| tanned in eastern Colorado and western
| Nebraska and Kansas through hap
hazard methods has compelled the
| United States government to recognize
| the possibilities lying dormant in this
great empire, says the Kansas City
large sum of money was appropri-
ated for dry farming experiments, and
Professor E. C. Chilcott of Brookings,
S. D., has been employed by Secretary
James Wilson to plan and conduct
farming operations on a scientific basis
with the hope of overcoming the adj
verse agricultural conditions prevailing
in the semiarid belt. Professor Chill
colt for the past ten years has been ex-
perimenting at the Brookings expert
ment station in dry farming. and from
his experience he believes that the
plains can be made Ito sustain thou
sands of human beings where hum
dreds of cattle now range and that
GUS villages and cities will dot the
landscape where an occasional steer or
coyote is to be seen in 1906.
Professor Chilcott says of his plan:
1--WE will undertake to conquer the
plains by cultural methods, by plant
selection and by an intelligent system
of rotation of crops. We will in fhis
way develop a system of cultivation
that will conserve the little moisture
that falls, develop plants strong in
drought resisting powers and main
tain the fertility of the soil at one and
the same time, and by attacking this
problem of farming on the plains from
the three sides at once we should be
able to accomplish definite results"
The possibilities of this great region
are beyond comprehension, extending
as it does from Canada on the north
to Texas on the south and for several
hundred miles east of the Rocky noun
tains. The problem to solve is a most
complicated one, almost every kind Of
climatic conditions prevailing in the
experiment zone, varying from the
great attitudes of the south to the ex-
IRENE cold of the north. Experiment
farms will be located all the way
from Canada to Texas, wherever it is
believed there is a variation In con-
ditiops, so that IL success crowns the
efforts of the scientists the question Of
successful farming on the plains will
be largely a matter Of classification.
Professor ChiIcott in speaking OF
what he considers his life work, makes
the following statements:
1.-The fact that there Is an area of
light rainfall and frequent droughts
should never be lost sight of, and the
very common fallacy that the climate
is changing owing to the building of
railroads and the construction of irri-
CATION enterprises In the west is de-
fusion and a snare. If the plains are
to be reclaimed we must learn to fit
our crops and our methods to the eli
matte conditions as they have been, are
and likely to remain, rather than in
dulge in the vain and delusive hope
that the climate is fitting itself to our
agricultural requirements.
Generally speaking, we will go ex-
tensively into systems of crop rotation,
soil physics. methods Of cultivation.