from the drier sections of the far West Dry-farming was practiced very successfully in the Great Plains area during the later ’80’s.  According to Payne, the crops of 1889 were very good; in 1890, less so; in 1891, better; in 1892 such immense crops were raised that the settlers spoke of the section as God’s country; in 1893, there was a partial failure, and in 1894 the famous complete failure, which was followed in 1895 by a partial failure.  Since that time fair crops have been produced annually.  The dry years of 1893-1895 drove most of the discouraged settlers back to humid sections and delayed, by many years, the settlement and development of the western side of the Great Plains area.  That these failures and discouragements were due almost entirely to improper methods of soil culture is very evident to the present day student of dry-farming.  In fact, from the very heart of the section which was abandoned in 1893-1895 come reliable records, dating back to 1886, which show successful crop production every year.  The famous Indian Head experimental farm of Saskatchewan, at the north end of the Great Plains area, has an unbroken record of good crop yields from 1888, and the early ’90’s were quite as dry there as farther south.  However, in spite of the vicissitudes of the section, dry-farming has taken a firm hold upon the Great Plains area and is now a well-established practice.

The curious thing about the development of dry-farming in Utah, California, Washington, and the Great Plains is that these four sections appear to have originated dry-farming independently of each other.  True, there was considerable communication from 1849 onward between Utah and California, and there is a possibility that some of the many Utah settlers who located in California brought with them accounts of the methods of dry-farming as practiced in Utah.  This, however, cannot be authenticated.  It is very unlikely that the farmers of Washington learned dry-farming from their California or Utah neighbors, for until 1880 communication between Washington and the colonies in California and Utah was very difficult, though, of course, there was always the possibility of accounts of agricultural methods being carried from place to place by the moving emigrants.  It is fairly certain that the Great Plains area did not draw upon the far West for dry-farm methods.  The climatic conditions are considerably different and the Great Plains people always considered themselves as living in a very humid country as compared with the states of the far West.  It may be concluded, therefore, that there were four independent pioneers in dry-farming in United States.  Moreover, hundreds, probably thousands, of individual farmers over the semiarid region have practiced dry-farming thirty to fifty years with methods by themselves.