It  was  not  until  1892,  after  eight  years  of  ex-
perimenting, that  any  very  tangible  results  were
secured.  About  this  time,  the  reports  of  the  inves-
tigations of  Professors  King  and  Goff  of  Wisconsin,
Hilgard  of  California,  Bailey  and  Roberts  of  New
York,  and  others,  with  reference  to  soil  moisture
and  its  movements,  came  to  hand  and  aided
materially  in  shaping  the  work  which  is  reorganiz-
ing agriculture  in  the  great  semi-arid  West.  This
system  has  recently  been  termed  "dry-farming,"  a
name  that  is  somewhat  misleading,  as  it  indicates
that  plants  grown  by  the  method  require  less
water  than  others,  which  is  not  true.  The  fact  is,
more  water  is  used  in  growing  a  crop  by  this  method
under  semi-arid  conditions  than  is  used  for  an  ordi-
nary crop  by  the  common  systems  in  sections  of
greater  rainfall  because  a  much  greater  percentage
of  the  water  is  utilized.
