Dry-Farming

Dry-Farming

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Dry-Farming, by John A. Widtsoe
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Title: Dry-Farming
Author: John A. Widtsoe
Release Date: January, 2004 [EBook #4924] [Yes, we are more than
one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on March 27,
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Language: English

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DRY-FARMING
A SYSTEM OF AGRICULTURE FOR COUNTRIES UNDER LOW
RAINFALL
BY JOHN A. WIDTSOE, A.M., Ph. D
PRESIDENT OF THE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE OF UTAH
NEW YORK
1920

TO
LEAH
THIS BOOK IS INSCRIBED
JUNE 1, 1910

PREFACE

Nearly six tenths of the earth's land surface receive an annual rainfall of
less than twenty inches, and can be reclaimed for agricultural purposes
only by irrigation and dry-farming. A perfected world-system of
irrigation will convert about one tenth of this vast area into an
incomparably fruitful garden, leaving about one half of the earth's land
surface to be reclaimed, if at all, by the methods of dry-farming. The
noble system of modern agriculture has been constructed almost wholly
in countries of abundant rainfall, and its applications are those
demanded for the agricultural development of humid regions. Until
recently irrigation was given scant attention, and dry-farming, with its
world problem of conquering one half of the earth, was not considered.
These facts furnish the apology for the writing of this book.
One volume, only, in this world of many books, and that less than a

year old, is devoted to the exposition of the accepted dry-farm practices
of to-day.
The book now offered is the first attempt to assemble and organize the
known facts of science in their relation to the production of plants,
without irrigation, in regions of limited rainfall. The needs of the actual
farmer, who must understand the principles before his practices can be
wholly satisfactory, have been kept in view primarily; but it is hoped
that the enlarging group of dry-farm investigators will also be helped
by this presentation of the principles of dry-farming. The subject is now
growing so rapidly that there will soon be room for two classes of
treatment: one for the farmer, and one for the technical student.
This book has been written far from large libraries, and the material has
been drawn from the available sources. Specific references are not
given in the text, but the names of investigators or institutions are
found with nearly all statements of fact. The files of the Experiment
Station Record and Der Jahresbericht der Agrikultur Chemie have
taken the place of the more desirable original publications. Free use has
been made of the publications of the experiment stations and the United
States Department of Agriculture. Inspiration and suggestions have
been sought and found constantly in the works of the princes of
American soil investigation, Hilgard of California and King of
Wisconsin. I am under deep obligation, for assistance rendered, to
numerous friends in all parts of the country, especially to Professor L.
A. Merrill, with whom I have collaborated for many years in the study
of the possibilities of dry-farming in Western America.
The possibilities of dry-farming are stupendous. In the strength of
youth we may have felt envious of the great ones of old; of Columbus
looking upon the shadow of the greatest continent; of Balboa shouting
greetings to the resting Pacific; of Father Escalante, pondering upon the
mystery of the world, alone, near the shores of America's Dead Sea.
We need harbor no such envyings, for in the conquest of the
nonirrigated and nonirrigable desert are offered as fine opportunities as
the world has known to the makers and shakers of empires. We stand
before an undiscovered land; through the restless, ascending currents of
heated desert air the vision comes and goes. With striving eyes the
desert is seen covered with blossoming fields, with churches and homes
and schools, and, in the distance, with the