The other grains, potatoes,
roots, and vegetables are also grown without irrigation. In the
parts of this dry-farm district where the rainfall is the highest,
fruits of many kinds and of a high quality are grown without
irrigation. It is estimated that at least two million acres are
being dry-farmed in this district. Dry-farming is fully established
in the Columbia River Basin. One farmer is reported to have raised
in one year on his own farm two hundred and fifty thousand bushels
of wheat. In one section of the district where the rainfall for the
last few years has been only about ten or eleven inches, wheat has
been produced successfully. This corroborates the experience of
California, that wheat may really be grown in localities where the
annual rainfall is not above ten inches. The most modern methods of
dry-farming are followed by the farmers of the Columbia River Basin,
but little attention has been given to soil-fertility, since soils
that have been farmed for a generation still appear to retain their
high productive powers. Undoubtedly, however, in this district, as
in California, the question of soil-fertility will be an important
one in the near future.
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