The Montana plaindealer. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1906-1911, 1910-04-01
DRYFARMING Theme
INTERESTING FACTS VOICED
BY D. 7. HAM.
Modern System of Cultivation in United
States Spreads to Foreign Lands-Has
Brought Settlers and the West and
Northwest Are Developing Fast Under
These New Methods.

Probably no subject of public inter
est in recent years has attracted sueh
wide attention or spread so rapidly as
that of dry farming. -Four gatherings
have been held for the discussion of this
subject and preparations are now going
forward for the fifth convention of the
Dry Farming congress and lnterna-
tional Dry Farming exposition, which
will be held in Spokane the first week
in October.
Every state and territory in the So
called arid and the semi-arid west and
many of the states in the humid DIS
tricts of the United States are pre-
pairing to send delegates to this con
gress, and the provinces of western
Canada and the provinces and nations
on every continent are also making ar
rangements for representation with
delegates and exhibits.
Not only agrieulturists and opera
tive farmers, but scientists of the fore
most agricultural colleges and expert
ment stations, of the national depart
ments of agriculture of many govern
ments, as well as economists and pub
~lieists everywhere are interested In this
movement.
Wonder of Age.
The growth of the dry farming move
ment is one of the wonders OF the
present age. A term that was pro-
vocative of in%credulous smiles and
: deprecatory jests five years ago, today
is recognized as symbolieal of the
higher agriculture toward which all ma
tions are striving. The first meeting,
at which the Trans-M Missouri Dry Farm
r ing congress was formed, was regarded
as a Joke; the fifth Dry Farming con-
gress, which will meet in Spokane, holds
the serious attention of nations.
> Growth Phenomenal.
The growth of the dry farming move
ment has been phenomenal in that 1t
has spread to all quarters OF the globe
in four years, but its advancement to
the front of public questions in eco
u monte Importance is particularly notice
able in the western United States and
> Canada.
Five years ago there were a few
. farmers struggling against adversely on
the plains of eastern Colorado, in New
Mexico, Utah and elsewhere in the semi
arid west. The settlers who took vi
land in non-irrigable sections of the
II west were regarded as fOolhardy, OF
I worse. Their efforts to make the dry
le farms productive were condemned as in
W viting nothing but failure.
" Early Settlers Struggled.
Many settlers who had gone int
IL the dry regions did fail and man.
struggled along for years eking out
bare existence with the aid of a few
exceptionally propitious years, but mum
bers succeeded. Scattered Throughout
the west in Utah, Wyoming, Montana
@ Colorado, and in other states were NOR
or less isolated exceptions to the eS
p~eetations of the p~essImists. In som
O. sections, notably in eastern Washing
he ton, Oregon and Utah, there wer
rs, notable exceptions, and in these state
of dry farming was accepted as a fact.
20 Five years ago the newspapers @
to the country were reluctant to publis
articles of the successes of dry farm
'er ing. There was a prevalent ide
throughout the east that the create
ID. part of the west was useless for faru
Hod ing; that desert land would remain ba
list rem and desolate, where the irrigatin
Mt ditch was unknown, and that so-ealle
DE dry farming was ridiculous in coneel
ton and impraeticable in application
1er Scientific Cultivation.
,ti- The failures that have been recorde
on among the Settlers on the dry lant
did and the prejudice in the minds of cas-
be- ern and western skeptics against d.
lse. farming had a common origin
me ignorance of the conditions under whiC
dry farming was attempted and of Il
OF methods necessary to successful d
ing farming. The settlers who found Il
the conditions on the dry lands too har
OF did not know how to combat those co
Die ditions. They did not know how to plo
one their ground, what kind of seed
'ies plant, what kind of cultivation to gi'
their growing or dying crops. In brit
they did not understand the conserv
tion of moisture or the scientific CT
~tivation of soil.
- The unbelievers in the east did n
iii know the west, did not understand t
re- conditions necessary to successful far
ing in any region, did not believe t
facts when they were presented, |
cause they did not know the we
Skepties in the west did not know tn,
west or were influenced by motives
selfish interest, inspired by a mistak
idea that the settlement of the count
by farmers was somehow in conf
- with their own private interests.
Cu.. ~