This is one of the great dry-farm districts
of the world.
The Great Basin
The Great Basin includes Nevada, the western half of Utah, a small
part of southern Oregon and Idaho, and also a part of Southern
California. It is a great interior basin with all its rivers
draining into salt lakes or dry sinks. In recent geological times
the Great Basin was filled with water, forming the great Lake
Bonneville which drained into the Columbia River. In fact, the Great
Basin is made up of a series of great valleys, with very level
floors, representing the old lake bottom. On the bench lands are
seen, in many places, the effects of the wave action of the ancient
lake. The chief dry-farm crop of this district is wheat, but the
other grains, including corn, are also produced successfully. Other
crops have been tried with fair success, but not on a commercial
scale. Grapevines have been made to grow quite successfully without
irrigation on the bench lands. Several small orchards bearing
luscious fruit are growing on the deep soils of the Great Basin
without the artificial application of water. Though the first
dry-farming by modern peoples was probably practiced in the Great
Basin, yet the area at present under cultivation is not large,
possibly a little more than four hundred thousand acres.
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