With the passage of this
bill, stations for the application of modern science to crop
production were for the first time authorized in the regions of
limited rainfall, with the exception of the station connected with
the University of California, where Hilgard from 1872 had been
laboring in the face of great difficulties upon the agricultural
problems of the state of California. During the first few years of
their existence, the stations were busy finding men and problems.
The problems nearest at hand were those that had been attacked by
the older stations founded under an abundant rainfall and which
could not be of vital interest to arid countries. The western
stations soon began to attack their more immediate problems, and it
was not long before the question of producing crops without
irrigation on the great unirrigated stretches of the West was
discussed among the station staffs and plans were projected for a
study of the methods of conquering the desert.
The Colorado Station was the first to declare its good intentions in
the matter of dry-farming, by inaugurating definite experiments.
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