The ranch. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1902-1914, 1908-12-01

to be practiced.
In Eastern Oregon and Washington
the system of cropping the ground
only once in two years has been prac-
ticed on an extensive scale and with
great success, while in every state or
the West farming is carried on more
or less here and there without irriga-
ton and with a scant rainfall.
There are some general propositions
which have come under my observa-
ton that may possibly be useful to
you. The first of these is that the
successful growing of certain classes
of crops on land which does not con-
tain too great a percentage of clay,
with a limited rainfall and without
artificial irrigation has long since
ceased to be an experiment. Second,
that so-called dry farming under rea-
sonably favorable conditions and by
the use of proper methods is but
little less certain and satisfactory in
it's results than ordinary farming in
the average country of heavy rainfall.
and much more satisfactory than in
many regions of heavy rainfall with
poor SOIL
MY personal opinion is based on
quite extensive observation that the
most satisfactory results will be OBJ
tanned in most regions having less
than eighteen or twenty inches of an
nual precipitation by biennial crop
ping and summer tillage. I believe
that in the running of the years the
farmer will get more dollars per acre
per annum from his farm by this
method than by annual cropping and
with less labor and expense. The only
exception I should make to this rule
is in cases where cultivated crop,
like corn or particularly potatoes or
other roots, is followed by grain
crop.
No one who has had any experience
in dry farming needs to be advised
that in every dry farming region
adapted to the growth of winter grain
such crops are the most certain and
satisfactory, neither does any expe-
rienced dry farmer need to be told
that ground should be plowed in the
fall to produce the best results and
that it must be plowed deep is so
fundamental a proposition that the
veriest novice understands it. Above
all, in season and out of season, and
U6IWcou ScdoOlO, ChO Jih6 anu pC'h
ing surface must be broken.
The success of dry farming under
proper conditions is the hope of the
semi-arid West, for it makes possible
the settlement of vast areas that
otherwise would procure only the
scant forage which unaided nature
provides. In it's development it will
double, possibly treble, the cultivated
area of the so-called arid states. 1t
is the handmaiden and supplement of
irrigation, for as time passes and
population increases in density, the
high-priced irrigated lands must be
used exclusively for the growth Of
crops of large value per acre, thus
rendering the entire Western country
dependent for it's cereals and certain
classes of forage upon the unirrigated
lands.
Dry farming will also prove help
full ally to aid the live stock in
dustry, for after the last word has
been said and the last acre that can be
proftably irrigated and can be
successfully dry farmed in our West
ern country, has been brought under
cultivation, the major portion Of our
intermountain territory will still re-
main as a permanent grazing region
interspersed with the irrigated valleys
and the dry farm uplands affording
within easy access the feed and for
age which relieves the stock industry
of the dangerous element of chance
and makes possible the improvement
of our live stock and it's finishing at
home, so that we shall become the
producers of finished article. rather
than of a raw material, thereby Sc
curing the profits which now go to
others.
AS the representative of the people
of Wyoming l made every earnest eff