an equivalent of ten pounds of corn, with roughage, to produce one pound of beef, and five pounds of corn, with roughage, to produce one pound of mutton. Hogs are still more efficient and on the average will return one pound of pork for every four and one-half or five pounds of grain. Moreover, fattening hogs require so small a proportion of roughage that we may ignore this item entirely in the above comparison. When roughage in the form of clover or other pasture is employed for hogs, less grain than that indicated above will be required. It is not ordinarily wise for the general farmer to produce only one kind of animal. While hogs are undoubtedly one of the most profitable animals, they can not be depended on to utilize roughage in the form of hay or straw, and only a comparatively small amount of pasture.

Equipment for a 240-acre farm.

A well-managed farm of the above size should carry the following equipment of live-stock: A flock of two hundred breeding ewes, fifteen brood sows, five cows and six work-horses, at least four of which should be heavy mares capable of producing good draft colts or mules. The young stock should all be fattened before selling. The annual sales from such a farm, barring disease, accident or unusually bad crops, would be approximately the following: Fifteen hundred pounds of wool, two hundred fat lambs, one hundred and ten fat hogs, weighing two hundred pounds each, five fat yearling cattle, weighing nine to eleven hundred pounds each, and four draft colts. There should also be sales of eggs, poultry and butter amounting to a considerable item. In addition, if the above cropping plan is followed, there will be for sale annually 1,000 bushels of wheat. The plan here contemplated, however, involves the purchase of concentrated foods, as cottonseed meal or linseed meal, of a value not exceeding the sales of wheat. The progressive and successful farmer must have the best labor-saving machinery. It economizes labor and insures saving the crops when labor cannot be secured at any price. The expense of such machinery is large, but is justified on a farm of the size here contemplated. The machinery should include one gang plow (two fourteen-inch plows), one walking plow, one four-horse disc harrow, one smoothing harrow, two corn cultivators, one grain drill, one self-binder, one corn binder, one mowing-machine, one side delivery rake, one hay loader, one hay fork with pulleys and rope, one farm wagon, one low-down platform wagon, and small tools, as forks, shovels, hoes and so forth.

Summary.

The most important general principles that govern the above system are: farm sales exclusively of animal products, thus conserving soil fertility; extensive use of labor-saving machinery and of horse power instead of hand labor; producing the animals on the farm and finishing them with the products grown on the same farm; handling carload lots; continuous large areas of corn and clover, and a definite area of permanent pasture.

THE LAYOUT OF A FARM IN AN ARID REGION

By W. M. Jardine

The methods of farming in an arid region show considerable variation within the same section of the country; and of course a very great difference obtains between the methods employed there and in a humid region. When it is remembered that the word arid means dry, sun-scorched, destitute of moisture as opposed to the moist, damp atmosphere of humid regions, it is not difficult to conceive of the vast difference in the treatment required for crops.

A region is considered arid when the total annual precipitation is fifteen inches or less. Time and experience have demonstrated that in such localities farming cannot be practiced successfully without artificial application or conservation of water. This, then, is the vital, fundamental consideration in farming arid lands, namely, the storing, by scientific methods, of all precipitation, and the effective utilizing of this on the land under cultivation. In many instances, communities resort to the storage reservoir or the mountain streams for their supply, and this constitutes simple irrigation.

There are three main types of farming in an arid region: (1) by means of irrigation; (2) by socalled "dry-farming"; (3) by ranging. These types may be briefly discussed with reference to the layout of the farm area. It is not intended to enter into any discussion of the methods and special practices of these types of agriculture.

Layout of an irrigated farm.

In Fig. 170 is shown the layout of an eighty-acre irrigated farm. The water enters the field at the northwest corner. The main irrigating ditch continues along the east side, two parallel laterals intersecting it at right angles. One of these laterals extends along the north side; the other crosses the center of the field. With such a system, it is possible to distribute the water equally over the field with the least number of ditches. It is important that the slope of the surface be smooth and uniform. The best possible grade will vary considerably with the character of the soil. One to three feet drop per hundred feet will probably be the most effective. When the field is laid out properly, as in Fig. 170, very little labor will be necessary in distributing the water. This plan can be considered as representative of an irrigated farm, particularly as regards the scheme by which it is divided into lots and planted to satisfy the requirements of rotation, and to enable the farmer to distribute his work throughout the year to the best possible advantage.

The annual crop harvested from such a farm should be about as follows: Ten acres of orchard should average about $150 per acre; twenty acres of alfalfa, at the rate of six tons per acre, $4.50 per ton; five acres of wheat, at sixty bushels per acre, seventy-five cents per bushel; twenty acres of sugar-beets, at twenty-five tons per acre, $4.50 per ton; five acres of oats, at eighty-five bushels per acre, forty cents per bushel; potatoes at the

The "dry farm."

Although it is considered that irrigation forms the basis of agriculture in an arid region, yet it is estimated that less than two per cent of the arid lands are under irrigation, and it is further estimated that after the art of storing and applying water has been perfected, there will still be insufficient water to irrigate ten per cent of the total area. Recent investigations of dry-farming, or farming without irrigation, have demonstrated that paying crops can be produced in regions where the annual precipitation is as low as ten inches, thus bringing under cultivation millions of acres which up to the present time have been considered useless, except for range purposes. [See page 398.]

A typical dry farm would be about 320 acres, devoted almost exclusively to the growing of drought-resisting crops, such as wheat, oats, barley, rye, native grasses, alfalfa, and the like. Such farms are usually divided into two main fields of 150 acres. One field is summer-fallowed while the other is producing a crop. In this way, one-half the land is lying over every year in order to store up two years' moisture to produce a crop. The main product of a dry

single day. On the larger farms, steam power is taking the place of horse power to a great exent. When it is the object of the farmer to grow dry farm crops only, it becomes necessary, and is the custom, to increase holdings to 640 acres or more.

In dry-farming the practice of rotating crops with any system is practically unobserved, unless it is among a few of the most successful farmers. The following plan illustrates common practice: 1. Wheat; summer fallow; wheat.

2. Wheat; summer fallow; oats; wheat.

farm is wheat, other crops being grown principally for feed. Fall-plowing is practiced whenever possible, so that the soil will be in better condition to hold the moisture from the winter snows and early spring rains. The plowed ground is cultivated during the summer with an ordinary disc harrow or smoothing harrow, the purpose being to hold moisture in the soil and prevent the growth of weeds. The average yield of wheat per acre is about fifteen bushels. Very seldom is one of these farms inhabited the year round. The owners usually have a few acres with a water-right where they live in the winter months, and on which sufficient hay is raised to feed a few head of animals. This kind of farming will always be one of the leading phases of agriculture in an arid region.

This kind of farming has been practiced for many years, but it is only since 1904 that the system has developed into a profitable industry. Thousands of bushels of wheat, barley and oats are being produced on land that five years ago was thought to be less than worthless, and as yet this method of farming is but in a primitive state. The system adopted and followed by the most successful farmers is one that will admit of the operation of large tracts of land at a minimum expense. The importance of such a system will be appreciated when we consider the gross receipts of one acre. With an average yield of 15 bushels of wheat worth not to exceed $10, it is evident that all farm operations must be done on an extensive scale in order to be profitable. To do this, especially adapted machinery must be used, machinery that will enable one man to handle many acres of land in a

A system of cropping that would answer the requirements of a rotation for the dry lands would be about as follows:

Wheat; field-peas; wheat; corn or potatoes; barley or oats; alfalfa for a series of years.

With such a rotation a permanent agriculture could be established for the unirrigated lands of the far West.

The range.

Aside from the irrigation and dry-farming of the West, the "range" should also be mentioned. The range is the open, unfenced country, typically that belonging to the government, on which stock is pastured in large flocks or herds. Range-farming is dependent to a considerable extent on irrigationfarming. The open range no longer provides sufficient pasturage for the flocks and herds during the entire year. Three months of the year, during the most severe winter weather, all live-stock must be fed, except in a very few localities; hence it is that range-farming becomes dependent on irrigation.

The range stock is usually shipped from the range directly to eastern buyers, but a better practice, and one that is becoming recognized as such by the stock-growers, is to finish the animals on the alfalfa and grain produced in the West before final sales are made to the eastern markets.

Range-farming in the past has been poorly organized, and is so yet; but since the national government began the establishment of forest reserves through the entire West, a gradual change for the better is becoming evident, and the present indications point to a better organized system.