The Springfield herald., 1909-05-14
CHANCE TO TRY
DRY FARMING.
ENLARGED HOMESTEAD LAW
WILL ATTRACT MANY NEW
SETTLERS.
POWER FOR PUMPING
PROBLEMS IN CONNECTION WITH
CULTIVATION OF SEMl-ARlD
LANDS.

The operation OF the Mondell act,
providing homesteads of 800 acres in
the so-called semi-arid sections of
Colorado, will draw thousands of set
tiers to the state. says The Denver
News. The sale of 1O,OOO-acre tract
in the vicinity of Denver to Philadel-
phia capitalists gives the topic a local
application, because it means valuable
crops where scant grazing now exists,
an increased industrial population,
more trade for the city and profit
able traffic for the interested rail
roads.
There are three subordinate topics
Of wide interest in connection with
reclaiming these lands. The first is
the work of the United States Agricul-
tural Department as set forth in the
annual Year Book more especially
in the issue for 1905, In which Elwood
Mead, well known in Colorado. re-
views the topic at length. Soil culture
and seeding may well be entrusted to
the Agricultural College at Fort Col
Inns, which will soon be well equipped,
in faculty members and appliances,
for a task of this nature. The more
effective and cheaper transmission of
electric power can safely be referred
to the Colorado School of Mines, where
the habit of doing things" is chronic.
1t is believed that the power thus gen
Grated will eventually be used to
pump water for the irrigation of thou
gands of acres in eastern Colorado.
Professor Mead estimates the debat-
able farm land of America, from Can
ada to the Gulf of Mexico "and be-
tween a rainfall of twenty inches year
ly and the Rocky mountains" at 3OO,-
100000 acres. This is today the great
est problem in American agriculture.
and one well worthy of the joint eff
forts of intelligent settlers, the agri-
cultural department and Colorado's
two institutions in the technical indus
trial class.
1.-The area is great" says Professor
Mead; 'the soil is deep and exceed
ingly fertile, and the climate health
full and agreeable aside from lack of
moisture Men need it for homes. All
interests are eager to see these areas
settled, providing the settlers can be
selfsupporting, or to avert this if set
tlement means disaster. From all
classes comes the question: What
methods will make the most of these
lands? How can they be made to sup
port the largest number of people and
give them the greatest measure of hui
man comfort?"
Dry farming dates back to 1888,
when the scene was western Kansas
and western Nebraska. 1t invaded
eastern Colorado in 1856. A few wet
years, when the supply of moisture
was exceptional and fine crops We're
grown, were followed by years of ex-
ceptional drouth. when millions of
acres of promising crops shriveled
and dried up. This was before dry
farming" was properly understood,
when no special treatment of the soil,
no effort to conserve winter moisture,
and no use of special seeds was in the
farmers program. The failure and
hardship of that period need not be re-
peated. In the area where the failures
occurred thriving farms, villages and
towns now exist; national banks have
been established, and while 1908, so
far as eastern Colorado is concerned
was the driest in thirty-three years, ac-
cording to the records of the weather
bureau, fine crops of Turkey red
wheat were produced near Denver,
more settlers took up lands than ever
before in one season, and land values
advanced from 100 to 200 per cent.