So persistent is the half-expressed fear that this driest year makes it impossible to rely upon dry-farming as a permanent system of agriculture that a search has been made for reliable long records of the production of crops in arid and semiarid regions.  Public statements have been made by many perfectly reliable men to the effect that crops have been produced in diverse sections over long periods of years, some as long as thirty-five or forty year’s, without one failure having occurred.  Most of these statements, however, have been general in their nature and not accompanied by the exact yields from year to year.  Only three satisfactory records have been found in a somewhat careful search.  Others no doubt exist.

The first record was made by Senator J. G. M. Barnes of Kaysville, Utah.  Kaysville is located in the Great Salt Lake Valley, about fifteen miles north of Salt Lake City.  The climate is semiarid; the precipitation comes mainly in the winter and early spring; the summers are dry, and the evaporation is large.  Senator Barnes purchased ninety acres of land in the spring of 1887 and had it farmed under his own supervision until 1906.  He is engaged in commercial enterprises and did not, himself, do any of the work on the farm, but employed men to do the necessary labor.  However, he kept a close supervision of the farm and decided upon the practices which should be followed.  From seventy-eight to eighty-nine acres were harvested for each crop, with the exception of 1902, when all but about twenty acres was fired by sparks from the passing railroad train.  The plowing, harrowing, and weeding were done very carefully.  The complete record of the Barnes dry-farm from 1887 to 1905 is shown in the table on the following page.

Record of the Barnes Dry-farm, Salt Lake Valley, Utah (90 acres)

Year Annual Yield When When
      Rainfall per Acre Plowed Sown
      (Inches) (Bu.)
1887 11.66 —–­ May Sept. 1888 13.62 Failure May Sept. 1889 18.46 22.5 —–­ Volunteer+ 1890 10.38 15.5 —–­ —–­ 1891 15.92 Fallow May Fall 1892 14.08 19.3 —–­ —–­ 1893 17.35 Fallow May Fall 1894 15.27 26.0 —–­ —–­ 1895 11.95 Fallow May Aug. 1896 18.42 22.0 —–­ —–­ 1897 16.74 Fallow Spring Fall 1898 16.09 26.0 —–­ —–­ 1899 17.57 Fallow May Fall 1900 11.53 23.5 —–­ —–­ 1901 16.08 Fallow Spring Fall 1902 11.41 28.9 Sept.  Fall 1903 14.62 12.5 —–­ —–­ 1904 16.31 Fallow Spring Fall 1905 14.23 25.8 —–­ —–­

+About four acres were sown on stubble.