The whole
matter, however, looks much more favorable to-day, for the efforts
of the Federal and state governments have succeeded in discovering
numerous subterranean sources of water in dry-farm districts. In
addition, the development of small irrigation systems in the
neighborhood of dry-farm districts is helping the cause of the live
stock industry. At the present time, dry-farming and the live stock
industry are rather far apart, though undoubtedly as the desert is
conquered they will become more closely associated. The question
concerning the best maintenance of soil-fertility remains the same;
and the ideal way of maintaining fertility is to return to the soil
as much as is possible of the plant-food taken from it by the crops,
which can best be accomplished by the development of the business of
keeping live stock in connection with dry-farming.
If live stock cannot be kept on a dry-farm, the most direct method
of maintaining soil-fertility is by the application of commercial
fertilizers. This practice is followed extensively in the Eastern
states and in Europe. The large areas of dry-farms and the high
prices of commercial fertilizers will make this method of manuring
impracticable on dry-farms, and it may be dismissed from thought
until such a day as conditions, especially with respect to price of
nitrates and potash, are materially changed.
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