Finally, the recommendations made by Merrill may here be inserted. A
dry-farmer for best work should be supplied with the following
implements in addition to the necessary wagons and hand tools:--
One Plow.
One Disk.
One Smoothing Harrow.
One Drill Seeder.
One Harvester or Header.
One Mowing Machine.
CHAPTER XVI
IRRIGATION AND DRY-FARMING
Irrigation-farming and dry-farming are both systems of agriculture
devised for the reclamation of countries that ordinarily receive an
annual rainfall of twenty inches or less. Irrigation-farming cannot
of itself reclaim the arid regions of the world, for the available
water supply of arid countries when it shall have been conserved in
the best possible way cannot be made to irrigate more than one fifth
of the thirsty land. This means that under the highest possible
development of irrigation, at least in the United States, there will
be five or six acres of unirrigated or dry-farm land for every acre
of irrigated land. Irrigation development cannot possibly,
therefore, render the dry-farm movement valueless. On the other
hand, dry-farming is furthered by the development of irrigation
farming, for both these systems of agriculture are characterized by
advantages that make irrigation and dry-farming supplementary to
each other in the successful development of any arid region.
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