The Greeley tribune., 1909-12-23
BIG FACTS ON FOURTH
DRY FARMING CONGRESS-

Few meetings have ever been held
mat Will help the farmer to the same
eateht az the great convention held
at Billings. October 26, 81 and %.
SHOWN us the Fourth Dry Farming
congress. 1t takes time to organ-
lAe ana put In shape such meetings
as thls and SO get the greatest good
out of them. We cannot but recog-
hize that this meeting was emineptly
successful and that the errors, II any,
| OF the preceding three congresses
were not made at the fourth, The
| results which will come from the
strenuous work of the gentlemen In
charge and those of the different
states, who worked so hard and faith
'ully to make this congress the sue
cess 1t was, cannot but be most graf
| ifying to those men.
| Every important work we under
take upon such lines, to prove and
show the world new ideas and
thoughts, must necessarily bring
forth some opposition. ais is as it
should be. because it gives those who
believe In their work the opportunity
or proving as far as possible that
their ideas are correct. 1t wakes us
all and shows a great many that we
have been running in too small
circle.
The general development OF agri-
culture has been very slow in proper
ton to our opportunities and we have
not made the progress we should.
The agricultural conditions of the
sreat west have not been, and are not
yet understood by many men of the
east. 1t takes westerner to under
stand the west. The early settlers
of the west have fought out their
own salvation, depending entirely
upon their own energy and brains,
and very little help has been given
them from the outside. They have
been told how they ARE running their
land and themselves by their methods
and some remedies have been offered
them in a kind of lordly and perfume
tory way which does not and will
not appeal to the average western
farmer.
Such meetings as those of the Dry
Farming Congress must be of the
greatest help, not only to the farmers
of the United States, but to the whole
agricultural world. When such men
as were at Billings give their eX-
periences in plain, everyday language,
ii appeals to the right men and many
will go back to their farms with
new ideas and thoughts which they
will put in practice. The whole
world will have the opportunity of
reading the proceedings. 1t is easy
| to understand how such meetings
will make intelligent men think.
Farmers will take more notice of the
suggestions made because this con-
gress is made up principally of farm
ers A great many of the talks and
papers were given by practical men
and this appeals to the farming COM
munity.
There is no other organization
like this in the world. and I do not
know of any that possibly can WELD
so great and good an influence. 1nis
congress has made the skeptic and
the "knocker'' realize that many
things they thought they knew all
about were otherwise. Many new
ideas about farming have been
brought out by these meetings and
many so-called impossibilities in
farming have been and are being ac-
complished The experience of the
past shows that state after state in
the early days was not considered
good for farming, but the energy
and grit of the pioneer proved tnat
the iand was not made for ornament
or for few stockmen.
II has been asserted that one can
not raise crops without copious rain
tall or irrigation, yet the farmer, in
spite of these assertions. goes Sc
renely on and raises good crops with
less precipitation than was consld-
cred possible.
One of the most important results
of the '1nCrcss will he that the farm
er will assert himself as one Wh0
must be taken into consideration as
one who knows something about ms
own necessities. Science, as we un-
derstand it today. was unknown a
few years ago, yet there were me,
of intelligence who raised fine stocF
in those days: which proves tha'
some things have heen done and are
done without the aid of the scientist
and his theories. This is not written
to give the impression that we lS-
more the great work done by our
scientific men. They are necessary
to the progress of the world, pu'
they should realize that the farmer
is not lacking in intelligence and mi
tiative.
These great educational meeting,
bring together all kinds of men an,
ont Of the interchange of ideas Sr'N'
results must come. Such meetings
impress most forcibly our untortun,
ate slipshod methods of farming ana
make us realize the Importance ol
improving the manner and style o.
our work. We will better under
stand that intensive work pays ta'
better than extensive work.
RJOW TO THE GOVERNMENT
IN UNITED STATES COURT