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Widtsoe, John Andreas, 1872-1952

"Dry-Farming : a System of Agriculture for Countries under a Low Rainfall"

By
the action of the State Legislature of 1893, during the time of the
great drouth, a substation was established at Cheyenne Wells, near
the west border of the state and within the foothills of the Great
Plains area. From the summer of 1894 until 1900 experiments were
conducted on this farm. The experiments were not based upon any
definite theory of reclamation, and consequently the work consisted
largely of the comparison of varieties, when soil treatment was the
all-important problem to be investigated. True in 1898, a trial of
the "Campbell method" was undertaken. By the time this Station had
passed its pioneer period and was ready to enter upon more
systematic investigation, it was closed. Bulletin 59 of the Colorado
Station, published in 1900 by J. E. Payne, gives a summary of
observations made on the Cheyenne Wells substation during seven
years. This bulletin is the first to deal primarily with the
experimental work relating to dry-farming in the Great Plains area.
It does not propose or outline any system of reclamation. Several
later publications of the Colorado Station deal with the problems
peculiar to the Great Plains.


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