Dry Farming

Hardy Webster Campbell's contributions regarding dry farming are best understood within the context of the intensive boosterism accompanying the rapid agricultural settlement of the northern plains. The region had already demonstrated that new approaches to farming were needed prior to the widespread publication of his techniques and the belief that they represented a remedy for the region's agricultural challenges. As early as the 1870s, farming settlements had already emerged on the Great Plains. Although many of these farmers experienced success during ample rain, the inevitable return of dry conditions often resulted in financial ruin. Despite such precedents, dry farming's promoters enthusiastically embraced the notion that Campbell's approach possessed the necessary tools for prosperity.

During the initial phase of agricultural settlement, many Americans had also embraced grandiose notions; they had abandoned the notion that the plains represented nothing more than an unpromising, infertile desert. Settlers replaced this negative view with [Page 213]the naive notion that settlement itself might produce increased precipitation and agricultural prosperity. In 1873, the federal policymakers also miscalculated the stubbornness of the region's aridity by enacting the Timber Culture Act, which entitled settlers with 160 acres if they planted 40 acres of trees. This provision proved to be unrealistic, and the planting requirements had to be reduced to 10 acres five years later. In the late 1880s, settlers' optimism was severely tested with the onset of a sustained period of low rainfall, resulting in large numbers of abandoned farms. Such conditions necessitated the development of new agricultural approaches, improved farming techniques, and hardier crops capable of withstanding the plains environment.

Although Campbell's important role in Western settlement distinguishes him from the typical plains resident, his early experience is not atypical. Campbell spent his childhood on a Vermont farm and shortly after leaving New England had established himself as a Dakota farmer. Although initially experiencing success, he soon faced considerable difficulties with the onset of drought. This experience encouraged his search for farming methods that would be more suitable for dry conditions. By the 1890s, his initial experiments had been promising and had gained the interest of a number of railroad companies. A number of railroads appointed him as a director of their model farms. Campbell became involved in the activities of over 40 such institutions throughout the West. These positions provided Campbell with opportunities to further explore his dry farming techniques, enabling him to develop a system aimed at conserving soil moisture. His approach included such methods as plowing fields deeply and extensively packing the soil. His close involvement with the railroads reveals how his ideas became intertwined in the efforts to encourage settlement on the plains.

Soon, Campbell's ideas were being published in The Western Soil Culture Journal and a variety of national publications. He also fully articulated his ideas in multiple editions of his Soil Culture Manual, which appeared in the early years of the 20th century. His soil manuals soon enjoyed national popularity. Campbell's writings not only outlined his dry farming methods, but also expressed his view that their proper implementation would produce agricultural abundance. In the opening pages of a 1907 edition of his Soil Culture Manual, he stated the region was “destined to be covered with countless homes of happy American families, with cities and towns prosperous and growing.” Soon, other dry farming enthusiasts were authoring their own handbooks and echoing Campbell's confident sentiments. In 1912, John Widtsoe, an official at Utah's experiment station, published Dry Farming: A System of Agriculture for Counties Under Low Rainfall and also received wide readership. Widtsoe agreed with most of Campbell's methods, and his sentiments were equally boosteristic. He expressed that dry farming could unleash the region's agricultural potential and bring prosperity to both current and future immigrants. He stated that, when dry farming principles were applied correctly, “the practice is almost always successful.”

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