212 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



\y, for improving the yield of plants is to follow the method of selecting 

 individuals and testing each individual for its yielding power. This 

 is entirely different from the old time method, in going by appearance 

 in selecting rather than the yield test. 



FERTILITY OF THE SOIL. 



However, the best seed that can be secured will not make a crop 

 unless attention is given to the soil. In every county there are farmers 

 who secure double the yield of the average farmer in their county, and 

 the large increase in usually due to their better methods of maintaining 

 the fertility of the land and their better tillage. As an example of this, 

 co-operative corn experiments were carried on with about 100 farmers 

 in eastern Nebraska for a period of five years. A large number of these 

 men carried the experiment continuously for that period. At the end 

 of the five years it was found that the experimenters averaged 54 bushels 

 to the acre for the five years, and according to the official records the 

 average yields of the counties in which they were living were 36 bushels 

 per acre. In other words, the best farmers in the county were averag- 

 ing 18 bushels per acre more than the average farmer. The possibility 

 of increasing our yield of corn to 50 or 60 bushels to the acre seems very 

 possible if the average farmer will do as well as the best farmer in every 

 neighborhood. As an example, however, of how far increases might be 

 secured, it was found that during the same period the average yield of 

 corn at the Experiment Station had been 72 bushels while the average 

 yield of corn in Lancaster county was 33 bushels — the Experiment Sta- 

 tion having more than double as much corn per acre as the county. No 

 methods were used at the Experiment Station that were not thoroughly 

 practical to use on every farm, and this would indicate the possibility 

 of doubling our yield of corn if ordinary improved methods were used. 

 One of the simplest ways of increasing the yield of all cereals is the 

 liberal use of clover and alfalfa. An inquiry made by the Farm 

 Management department of the Nebraska University, among farmers of 

 the State, revealed that cereal crops grown after clover or alfalfa were 

 usually doubled in yield the first two or three years. For example, 31 

 farmers who had recently plowed up clover or alfalfa sod reported 68 

 bushels per acre following clover or alfalfa as compared with 34 bushels 

 to the acre on adjacent land which had been left continuously to grain. 

 Many of our farmers have been complaining for the last few years that 

 their seed oats was "running out," but this is probably due to the 

 "running out" of soil rather than the seed. During the past two years 

 I have heard of a number of oat yields of 90 to 100 bushels to the acre 



