At the head of the Great Plains area at Saskatchewan one of the oldest dry-farm stations in America is located (since 1888).  In Russia several stations are devoted very largely to the problems of dry land agriculture.  To be especially mentioned for the excellence of the work done are the stations at Odessa, Cherson, and Poltava.  This last-named Station has been established since 1886.

In connection with the work done by the experiment stations should be mentioned the assistance given by the railroads.  Many of the railroads owning land along their respective lines are greatly benefited in the selling of these lands by a knowledge of the methods whereby the lands may be made productive.  However, the railroads depend chiefly for their success upon the increased prosperity of the population along their lines and for the purpose of assisting the settlers in the arid West considerable sums have been expended by the railroads in cooperation with the stations for the gathering of information of value in the reclamation of arid lands without irrigation.

It is through the efforts of the experiment stations that the knowledge of the day has been reduced to a science of dry-farming.  Every student of the subject admits that much is yet to be learned before the last word has been said concerning the methods of dry-farming in reclaiming the waste places of the earth.  The future of dry-farming rests almost wholly upon the energy and intelligence with which the experiment stations in this and other countries of the world shall attack the special problems connected with this branch of agriculture.

The United States Department of Agriculture

The Commissioner of Agriculture of the United States was given a secretaryship in the President’s Cabinet in 1889.  With this added dignity, new life was given to the department.  Under the direction of J. Sterling Morton preliminary work of great importance was done.  Upon the appointment of James Wilson as Secretary of Agriculture, the department fairly leaped into a fullness of organization for the investigation of the agricultural problems of the country.  From the beginning of its new growth the United States Department of Agriculture has given some thought to the special problems of the semiarid region, especially that part within the Great Plains.  Little consideration was at first given to the far West.  The first method adopted to assist the farmers of the plains was to find plants with drouth resistant properties.  For that purpose explorers were sent over the earth, who returned with great numbers of new plants or varieties of old plants, some of which, such as the durum wheats, have shown themselves of great value in American agriculture.  The Bureaus of Plant Industry, Soils, Weather, and Chemistry have all from the first given considerable attention to the problems of the arid region.  The Weather Bureau, long established and with perfected methods, has been invaluable in guiding investigators