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Widtsoe, John Andreas, 1872-1952

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

The business of the dry-farmer is always to farm so as to
be prepared for this driest year whenever it comes. If this be done,
the farmer will always have a crop: in the wet years his crop will
be large; in the driest year it will be sufficient to sustain him.
So persistent is the half-expressed fear that this driest year makes
it impossible to rely upon dry-farming as a permanent system of
agriculture that a search has been made for reliable long records of
the production of crops in arid and semiarid regions. Public
statements have been made by many perfectly reliable men to the
effect that crops have been produced in diverse sections over long
periods of years, some as long as thirty-five or forty year's,
without one failure having occurred. Most of these statements,
however, have been general in their nature and not accompanied by
the exact yields from year to year. Only three satisfactory records
have been found in a somewhat careful search. Others no doubt exist.
The first record was made by Senator J. G. M. Barnes of Kaysville,
Utah. Kaysville is located in the Great Salt Lake Valley, about
fifteen miles north of Salt Lake City.


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