The ranch. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1902-1914, 1909-05-01

than twenty inches of rainfall made
good in 1908, our hardest crop year
for more than a decade. The farmers
explained their method of growing
crops and had an exhibit of 1908
crops which was an unanswerable ar
gument of the truth of their asser-
tions. This experience meeting was
a most helpful feature of the sessions
of the Congress. They told us that
farming in the West calls for the high
est class of intelligence and that we
need to discourage the settlers who
cannot mix brains with SOIL"
From the excellent addresses given
and discussions heard, your statisti-
can cleaned the following as funda-
mentals which every new settler
should realize as essential and all i'm
portant:
First-Choose a soil adapted to
farming, with a clay subsoil. Shun a
sandy subsoil, since it tends to leach
moisture and makes it difficult to
maintain a soil reservoir, where, by
capillary action, moisture reaches the
plant as it has need. A sandy soil
needs different treatment than a clay
ey, or clay loan surface soil. Hence,
do not treeat all soils alike.
Second-Have one cash money crop,
but make the major portion of the
farm feed crops, which will give back
to the soil at least Is per cent soil
value of the crop fed, to keep up the
fertility of the farm and maintain hui
mus.
Third-Therefore, keep livestock or
the farm, the kind of livestock to be
determined by the farm environment,
market conditions and farm capital
the owner can invest.
Fourth-Adoption of moisture con-
serving methods of tillage is vital and
all important. Deep blowing, in the
average soil, is a requisite OF prime i'm
portance.
Fifth-Use acclimated seed of the
most drouth resistant type which can
be made to fit into a purposeful, prac-
teal rotation for the farm. At least
one legume should be grown in all
rotations chosen.
Sixth-Some capital is absolutely
essential for all settlers of Western
lands. In every instance of failure
which the writer has been able to
trace in the last four years, he finds
in the start a dearth of capital. We
must frankly, candidly and fairly
state that some capital here, as else
where, is required to build a home.
The writer would hesitate to urge a
man to bring his family to open up a
homestead who did not have enough
to stake him" for at least twenty
fo,,u n,onthc pctonnnc wnrn given
at the Congress where men have
worked for others and made good with
little or no capital, but 1t Is run
ming too great a risk to encourage any
man to trust to luck to pull his fam
lily through. Some capital, then, be
it asserted, is necessary to found a
home.
Seventh-Back of soil, climate, seed,
system and capital must be a re-
%sourceful, determined, intelligent
farmer, one willing to learn from his
neighbors and to adapt himself and
his methods to his environment.
Good business management often
measures the difference between sue
cess and failure on the farm.
1t has been the men who put in
practice the three cardinals of the
Characterization, Conservation,
Cultivation-who are blazing the road
for the rest of us to follow.
We received at this Congress the
unqualified statement of farmers with
more than a quarter of a c%entury's
experience, that they had actually
made good all these years. When
ua r~oali1a that tbaca man ranraS2nted
the varying conditions to be found in
travelling from Western Texas to East
ern Washington, we were made to
realize that dry farming so-called,
in the United States has passed from
an experiment to an accomplished fact
and Is now on a commercial basis.