The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1909-04-16


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CONQUERING DRY SPELLS.
How Farmers Successfully Figh
Dr0ughts by Conserving Rainfall.
(By Herbert Quick in Lafollette'
Magazine.) x.
West OF the Mississippi river on
hears q great deal about what is call
cd dry farming" 1t Is a new phras
IN this country, and relates to a mos
important matter. 4nere are NOR,
acres In the United States which ar,
droughty, year by year, than favored
with sufficient rain. lyery season /,
= drought when one gets into thu
short-srass country; sbat they ar
farming there more and more ant
with better success year BY year
Their methods are 10 q large extern,
nsw. and tare impoftant ito |; farmer,
n ABE eastsasa we'll 40 ain faheb west;
for M far1ns arsssub5set tn secession.
~ drodsht.l' ct 'swhiUh times "dry
farming" 10 40 useful IN Ohio or iii.
acigsas.1n- Colorado. :
Every farmer knows, OF course;
that BY frequent shallow cultivation
ne can cover the earth with sag aust
blanket, and keep II from drying out.
But to know It and to practice ii
Ars'veryidiffersnt things and to psac-
tice II scientifically is still another
matter. In North Dakota. Montana,
Colorado. South Dakota---and on
AownsfO Mexico mahy have learned
y, practice II scientifically.
The story 6f the popuiarization or
1dry farming" Is a fascinating one.
IN the early eighties the tsemi-arid
plains on either side OF the Rock
ies were ''homesteaded," timber
claimed" and settled upon, q good
deal " they have been in the past
few years. Allufed BY the fruitful
ness Of afew wet seasons and charm
ed sby the fertility and tractability
OF the soil. the people poured in from
the wetter east until hundreds Of
thousands had found homes--and
flattered themselves that they had
founded them.
Then came the droughts and hot
winds and crop failures and mort
gage foreclosures and the depopula-
ton Of whole counties by the flee
Ing OF the farmers who tried to
grow crops with few inches less of
rainfall than they were used to, and
failed. It was a disastrous time. |
The loan companies which were car
rying millions Of dollars in mortgages
on these lands went into bankruptcy.
and helped to make the panic of
1893 worse. The homesteads were
sold by the receivers Of the loan COM
panies, and were trafficked off to
REGULATORS for dollar to five dollars
IN acre, lands which are selling at
rom $25 to SIS an acre at this mo-
nent.
A Man and an Idea.
Two things have brought back the
'eople to the drier west, and rees-
ablished prosperity and happiness
here. One Is a cycle Of moist years.
he other is H. w Campbell. Those
Tho depend solely on wet years ,
will "go broke" as did !
heir predecessors. Those VINO de-
end on the philosophy taught by d
ampbell will weather the droughts 8
nat must come ard will be prosper h
us. e ;,
Campbell was South Dakota d
lrmer, and in the boom times made 81
oney and did well. When the
ought wiped out his neighbors it
lped him out, too Financially. If d
ere had not been in him something re-
1t or the ordinary, it would have ia
ped him out completely. But af- s,
the entinguishment OF thousands OF
ordinary men Campbell was still h,
ere. -,
IN idea is sometimes the best of in
Q preservers. Campbell climbed ia
the back of hobby and rode out to
the gloom and disaster of those ha
'rmy times. His hobby was the va
"a that If people only knew how to 1t
ltivate that soil, it would grow at
Fps in the dryest seasons and that ha
In proper culture, the farmers of wi
va, Wisconsin and all other states to
I'D laugh at the seyerest droughts br
n known to them. In,
He calculated the weight of an on
h of rainfall, and figured it all no,
In something like this man Gre
! TIL
IN inch of rainfall weighs about da,
tons for every acre of land. ma
me years that had bankrupted fac