The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-05-19

bushels an acre to thirty-seven, They also claim that if per cent of the money spent on irrigation were expended in the teaching of dry farming, 5OO,0OO.000 acres Of desert land could be scientifically res claimed. The dry farmers do not disap- prove of irrigation
 They find in all the big west plenty of room and need for both. They only see that after many billion dollars have been spent In dams and ditches for diverting the rivers that there will still remain many millions of acres untouched by the irrigation plan, inaccessible for this work. Tar out of the range of rivers or mountain reservoirs, They look to that day when the young men of the nation will have learned and adopted their newer plan, and see in the days of 8 golden future 35,000. . 900 people comfortably housed on the now vacant lands of the far west It has been proved that forty acres of this land will support in modern comfort a family of from three to five.
 It has been only a few years that the department of agriculture has made prac- tieal experiments In dry farming, follow ing on the heels of private enterprise and setting the seal of public approval on A plan for great internal development. Men were sent to Russia to study the wheat fields near the Sea of Azov, where rain
 
 tions are not unlike those of the arid west. It was decided to experiment with durum, the wheat from which macaronf flour Is made. The United States imports each year R500,000 pounds of the manu- factured product and many pounds of the durum wheat flour, so the plan had a commercial significance In 1901 the first crop of durum was harvested on the div lands, 10000 bushels in all. Last year the harvest was well up toward the 3O,00o. GOO mark. Fl Paso county, Colorado, on it's dry lands made forty-seven bushels to the acre. It Is claimed that manufacturers have opposed the raising of durum wheat as 1t is a harder grain and requires stronger machinery than other grains. It is difficult to interest the older farm CTS of the west in the newer process of agriculture. and the ones who come fresh from the east are also hard to convince. It Is on the young man of the west that , the hopes of the scientists rest for the development of their new ideal The Young Mems club of Cheyenne opened an experiment farm near their city and proved the theory to their own satisfac- tion. The Pomeroy Model Farm at Hill City. in western Kansas. got glorious re- turns from its persistent and careful work. The Eastern Colorado Fair asso- citation of 1905 had one of the most in teresting state agricultural exhibits that this country has known, and the giants of the vegetable kingdom that appeared there in all their fullness and pride were grown without irrigation.
 The Fort Hays agricultural station, sub-station of the Kansas State Agricul- tural college. Shas proved that four cuts of alfalfa are possible on dry farm lands, while the experiment stations in SedgwiolS county Colorado have proved 1t possible to get yield of thirty-five bushels of wheat to the acre, fifty of corn, 200 of po tatoes, thirty of rye. sixty-five of oats. two tons of millet and five tons of cane for forage. The Campbell Dry Farming association of Denver, the Scientific Farming association of Bennett, Colo, the Business Mems association of Limon and Julesberg are allied with the State Ag- ricultural colleges and the United States department of agricultural in perfecting schemes for further spread of dry farm ing interests. This would mean the re-