The Beaver herald. [volume] (Beaver, O.T. [Okla.]) 1895-1923, 1910-04-07
DRY FARMING TO AID NATIONS
Congressman MondelI Makes Reply
to James J. Hill on Diminution
of Food Supplies.

Representative Frank w. Mondell
OF Wyoming, president of the Dry
Farm congress and International Dry
Farm exposition, made speech re-
Gently on dry farming, in the course
OF which he touched upon the rela-
tion of this sort of agriculture to the
meat supply. He said, in part:
James j. Hill of the Great North
ern railroad, who is an accepted au-
thority on such matters. has recently
called the attention of the country to
the fact that at the present rate of
increase of consumption, with no great
increase of production, we would soon
cease to be wheat exporting coun-
try. and before long would be COM
PEELED to import portion of our
breadstuffs. Surely this is a contin.
gency, fraught as II is with mo-
mentous consequences, that may well
challenge the thoughtful attention of
our people. And 1t is a most striking
and fortunate coincidence that as we
near the balance between bread sup
ply and demand, dry farming, with
its splendid promise of vast in
crease in our wheat yield, points the
way to tremendous increase in our
food supply.
Some may say that this increase
In our supply of breadstuffs, in wheat
and rye-for rye will yield we'll with
less moisture than any other cereal
must be at the expense of our beef
and mutton supply, a considerable
portion of which now comes frcm the
lands being and to be occupied by dry
farmers.
Those who argue thus have taken
but superficial view of the situation
When the dry farmer has cultivated
all the lands in the intermountain
west that will successfully grow
crops without irrigation, there will
still remain millions of acres of graz
ing lands, and for each acre that
the dry farmer takes from the open
range he will produce in cheap forage,
in addition to his grain, infinitely
more in feeding value than the sparse
grasses his land formerly produced.
Our methods will gradually change.
The large herds and flocks will be
more or less divided, depending upon
local conditions; winter grazing, with
its losses and dangers, will be aban-
doned for winter feeding. and the ag-
gregate of beef and mutton will not
be diminished, but increased.
"In the region to which the enlarged
homestead law applies there still re-
mains about 375,OOO,0O0 acres of un-
reserved public lands. A small por-
tion Of this area is desert. A large
portion is essentially arid, or has
heavy clay or gumbo soil. and can
only be made to yield profitable crops
through reclamation by irrigation.
Some of it is mineral land, and much
of 1t is rough and rocky and only fit
for grazing purposes.
However. after making all these
deductions there still remains a vast
acreage of mesa. bench, and table
lands on the public domain which has
sufficient rainfall and the proper kind
of soil for the maintenance Of many
thousand prosperous dry-farm homes.
And in the same general region are
millions of acres Of land now in priv
ate owpership-acquired through rail
road land grants and otherwise-here
tofore used in large tracts for
pasturage and grazing purposes. whic h
are gradually being broken up and
sold at comparatively low prices,
which may be successfully titled un-
der dry farming methods"