DRY-LAND GRAINS IN THE GREAl? BASIN. 



AUTUMN CULTURE OP WINTER WHEAT. 



Ordinarily, when the wheat is planted, no more work on the soil 

 is necessary before spring. When, as sometimes occurs, the surface 

 soil becomes heavily crusted as a result of beating rains, it may be 

 advisable to harrow in the fall. If the plants are through the crusted 

 soil there is less necessity for harrowing than when they are impris- 

 oned beneath the crust. Early-planted wheat is especially liable to 

 damage from crusting, as beating rains are more likely to occur in the 

 early part of the autumn than they are in October and November. 



SPRING CULTURE OF WINTER WHEAT. 



Wliile autumn culture of winter wheat is seldom necessary, spring 

 culture is very frequently found advisable. This is especially true on 

 heavy clay soil like that at the substation. The rain and snow of the 

 winter season puddle the surface soil to a considerable extent and 

 when it dries it becomes extremely hard. Harrowing greatly im- 

 proves this condition. It breaks up the crust so as to allow the plants 

 greater freedom for growth and at the same time pulverizes the sur- 

 face soil in such a way as to prevent the loss of large quantities of soil 

 moisture by evaporation. It also kills large numbers of weeds and 

 thus greatly aids the wheat crop. In 1909 the substation started a 

 test of the efhciency of spring culture of wheat. The yields of both 

 the harrowed and unharrowed plats were so low because of poor stands 

 due to winterkilling that they did not show the effect of the harrowing, 

 but the moisture was much better conserved in the cultivated plat. 

 Plat 19 D was harrowed the last of April and cultivated in early June 

 with a special weeder (a light spring-tooth implement which affects 

 the soil in a way somewhat similar to the effect produced by a sulky 

 rake with the teeth pressed into the surface soil). 



Plat 20 D was not cultivated at all. The moisture contents of the 

 two plats to a depth of 6 feet, determined June 26 and August 12, are 

 given below: 



Plat 19 D (harrowed, etc.) . 

 Plat 20 D (not cultivated). 



June 26. 



Per cent. 

 17.04 

 15.97 



August 12. 



Per cent. 

 15.31 

 11.73 



This shows that the cultivated plat contained more moisture both 

 at the time the wheat was heading, June 26, and at the time of 

 maturity, August 12. Until the results of several years' tests are 

 available it will not be possible to state defmitely to what extent 

 sprmg harrowing benefits the wheat crop, but the data obtained in 

 1909 relative to the effect on the moisture content indicates that, at 



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