The Spanish Fork press. [volume] (Spanish Fork, Utah) 1902-current, 1910-04-28
y INCHES OF RAIN
Western Country Being Improved
by Conservation Of Moisture.
Aided by Scientific Methods and In.
PRODUCTION of Drousht-Resistins
plants Farmers Can Do
with Little Water.

We pride ourselves on being the
rossessors of the wisdom and expert
arce of the ages. And yet. when we
were first confronted with tia condi.
,ions N the arid and semi-arid re.
oions of our country we seemed to
have altogether forgotten that the
oorlv agricultural development of
mankind was all in regions of limited
rainfall, and that the mighty empires
If ancient days depended largely for
their wealth and strength on the prod
nets of agriculture under artificial ir-
r,gation, writes Congressman F. w.
Nondell in Field and Farm. Two
generations of men have been en-
gaeed in the west in reviving and i'm
nroving the methods of ancient irri-
cation until the advantages of that
method of agriculture have been fully
and triumphantly re-estabished.
We are now engaged in reviving
and improving in the new west an
other form of agriculture long prac-
ticed In the far east-that of farming
in regions of limited moisture by the
conservation of the natural rainfall
So accustomed had our people become
to farming in regions where the rain
fall is ordinarily more than sufficient
and often superintendent that we had
accented as a truism the false idea
that agriculture depending upon
natural precipitation could not be sue
cessful except where nature plagued
the husbandman with rain and snow
to such an extent that the most of his
labor was expended in an effort to
overcome the loss and damage of un-
necessarily frequent and copious de-
liveries of moisture from the skies.
Error and misconception are tena-
c;ous of life and 1t has taken gen.
Grafton of discovery and experiment
to demonstrate that wide range of
agricultural crops can be successfully
grown in certain soils where mud and
slush are rare and damage from eX-
cessive moisture almost unknown; in
other words, with an annual precipi-
tation heretofore considered entirely
inadequate. Thirty inches of moisture
per annum was once considered the
minimum for safe crop growing The
pioneer of the plains reduced this to
20 inches and now the thorough farm
er, aided by scientific methods and
the introduction and development of
drought-resisting plants, has demon
strated on an extensive scale and in
many localities in the west that a
considerable variety of agricultural
fitably grown with an annual precipi-
tation of less than IL inches.
This new-old system of agriculture,
long practiced in many parts of the
world and improved and perfected by
American genius, energy, and enter
prise, has come to be known as dry
farming. Some object to the name
and in sense 1t Is misnomer, for
the dry farmer Is most emphatically
moist-soil farmer, but our language
does not seem to contain word
which more nearly describes these
simple yet essential methods, easily
learned and readily applied, whereby
the dry farmer amid climatic condi
tons comfortable and pleasing. pro
duces his crops with more than or
binary certainty.
The old adage that enough is as
good as feast applies with peculiar
force to the problem of moisture in
the growing of crops. Why volun
tarily endure the blockading SHOWS
Of northern or the torturing mud
and slush Of southern humid winter
when nature has established condi
lions in the west free from these dis
comforts but with sufficient rain ant
snow fall intelligently conserved tc
produce satisfactory crops? The deeI
plowing and surface cultivation OF
the dry farmer are less laborious ant
more comfortably performed than the
mudding in of crops. the drainage ant
the weary waiting of the farmer II
humd regions for the land to dry suf
nclently for planting.