The weekly herald. [volume] (Amarillo, Tex.) 1906-19??, 1907-05-23
XPLAvATION OF
DRY FARMING
Interesting Explanation Of What the System Of
Dry Farming is, Used So Successfully in
Semi-Add Localities

EtIhlu HdNt H'Alu u kl'aN h'ol huoWN
"dry farming" practiced 30 success
fully In this locality and parts Of
New Mexico, Colorado and other
portions Of the semi-arid West,
There are no doubt many persons In
terested in what the system Of dry
farming consists Of, who do not know
what is meant by the term, For that
reason, the following article, written
by MI VIM. G. Deming, Of Chey-
enne. Wyo.. which has been publish
ed in many papers in the Panhandle
district is reproduced In this paper
and referred 10 the careful consider
alton Of our readers interested In
farming In the Panhandle:
Two years ago in the Rocky noun
tain west. dry flashing was a joke
and a by-word, To-day hundreds OF
thousands of acres are, or soon VIII
be, under cultivation by this method
thousands OF sturdy men are It's de-
voices, and only few weeks ago
800 Interested and enthusiastic del
egates aud as many visitors from fiji
teen arid and semi-arid states and
territories met at the Trans-Missouri
Dry Farming congress In Denver and
raglstered their faith in a movement
which is to join hands with irriga-
ton in retaining the barren wastes
OF the West.
Technically speaking, all that sec
ton OF country in which the annual
rainfall is less than twelve inches Is
called ,arld. Where the rainfall ex-
ceeds twelve inches and is less than
twenty Inches, 1t is called semi-arid'
For convenience and easy reckoning
draw a line from Bismarck, N. d.,
through North Platte, Neb', to La
redo, Texas, and all that country to
the westward to the Sierra Neyadas
and the Cascade mountains may be
termed arid and. semi-arid, and II
embraces more than one-thlrd OF the
entire United states. In this sec
ton is all that is left OF the public
domain, and 1t is the hope OF the
men and women who, crowded out
Of the congested East, desire to carve
ont new homes in the West and
transmit to their children a family
roof-tree.
II should be remembered In pass
ing that the most liberal estimate eV-
err placed upon the amount OF arid
and seml-arid land which 1t is pos
slble to reclaim by irrigation Is all
the waste waters where utilized, is
10 per cent OF the total area, and
this doubtless Is twice too much.
After counting out the irrigated
land, the mountainous lands the
worthless lands, the timbered lands,
the mineral lands, the government
reserves, and all other lands suitable
for grazing purposes only, we may
have left 90 per cent Of the whole
section reclaimable by dry farming
The arid and the semi-arid West
for forty years or more has been
largely a sheep and cattle pasture,
and Il is conservatively estimated
that it requires from twenty to 100
acres TO support one animal, the av-
erage being about thirty-five.
II will be readily seen, therefore
that " after all the available water
has been used for irrigation, there
is still an agency by which other
millions of acres may be redeemed,
then coy homes will replace the
sheen wagon and school children Will
romp where only lambs frollcked be-
fore.
what then, is dry farming? In
plain words, 1t is farming success
fully with the natural precipitation
which must be SO conserved and used
az In obtain results, The world has
Nodded along for several thousand
wears, and yet it has occurred to but
few people, until within a decade
that It is possible to store up the
moisture as It falls and use 1t when
desired. When rains come and the
snow melts upon the native sod In
the arid and seml-arid West, the
moisture is either quickly evaporat'
ed from the surface or passes into
the ground, from which 1t is almost
as quickly drawn by the same process
of evaporation.
When the land is plowed and per
mitted to lie without subsequent TIL
lape the moisture. whether from
rain or melted snow, soaks into the
ground, possibly to the depth OF inc
furow, from which 1t is again WIN
drawn by evaporation. Influenced
nv the heat Of the sun and the ariditN
of the atmosphere, the surface baKe'
and a crust Is formed. The untu