Missouri Corn Growers' Association. 351 



sap the ground of water and from a looser condition of the soil 

 that more readily absorbs rain. The cultivation of the soil after 

 packing rains form an earth mulch which prevents the loss of 

 moisture by evaporation. In the drier climates perhaps the 

 greatest benefit resulting from an early preparation of the soil 

 is the conservation of moisture. Where moisture is more plenti- 

 ful the greatest benefit results from the liberation of the plant 

 food, and especially of the plant food nitrogen. Plants use 

 nitrogen in the form of nitrates. Nitrates are formed as the 

 result of bacterial action. The bacteria that form nitrates work 

 only in well-aired soils. Thus the better the soil is aired the 

 more nitrates are formed. It is evident, therefore, that the 

 greatest development of nitrates takes place in soils plowed the 

 earliest and given the most frequent cultivation throughout the 

 summer. Thus the firmest seed bed, the most plant food, the 

 greatest accumulation of moisture and usually the largest yield 

 results from the earliest preparation of the soil. 



Experiments were started at the Kansas Experiment Sta- 

 tion several years ago to determine the value of different methods 

 of preparing land for wheat. This work has been conducted 

 during the last three years upon upland soil very low in fertility, 

 land that had been previously cropped for many years to small 

 grain, corn and sorghums, without the addition of manure or 

 green manuring crops. The field was in wheat in 1910. A por- 

 tion of this field was divided into plots in 1911, each plot receiv- 

 ing different seed-bed treatment. Eleven methods in all were 

 used. In 1912 and 1913 the same methods of treatment were 

 repeated on each of the eleven plots. Another portion of the 

 field was planted to corn in 1911, to oats in 1912 and to wheat 

 in 1913. Five different methods of preparing the seed bed were 

 used upon this area for the 1913 wheat crop. The wheat was 

 seeded upon all plots October 2nd. Bearded Fife wheat was 

 sown with a disk drill at the rate of one and one-fourth bushels 

 per acre. The following table shows the results of the various 

 methods of treatment for the season of 1913 and an average of 

 the three seasons, 1911 to 1913. 



