440 EXPERIMENT STATION KECOKD. [Vol. 38 



baking staDdpoint as the average spring wheats produced east of the Divide 

 and in the nortliern Great Plains district. 



The soft rvd and white wheats, such as Jones Winter Fife, Little Club, Red 

 Russian, and Fortyfold, are deemed generally inferior in baking qualities to 

 Marquis and Turkey grown in the same sections. 



Winter wheat in the Great Plains area: Relation of cultural methods to 

 production, E. C. CnrLCOTT, J. S. Cole, and J. B. Kuska ( U. S. Dcpt. Agr. Bui. 

 595 (1917), pp. 35, fig. 1). — This presents a study of the yields and of the 

 comparative cost of production, wdth the resulting profit or loss, of winter 

 wheat grown under various methods of seed-bed preparation at 13 field stations 

 in the Great Plains region, made in such a way as to show the effect of crop- 

 ping and cultivation in only the year preceding its growth. The investigations 

 cover an aggregate of 75 station years, embodying the data from 1,137 plat 

 years. The area studied included the western portions of North and South 

 Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas and the eastern portions of 

 Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico. The results obtained at each 

 field station are discussed separately, and tabulated data presented giving the 

 yield and cost of production for such cultural treatments as early fall plowing, 

 late fall plowing, subsoiling, listing, disking, green manuring, summer tillage, 

 and previous cropping. A brief description of the soil, with special reference 

 to Its depth and water-holding capacity, accompanies the discussion of each 

 field station. 



The results obtained in these investigations were in a measure comparable 

 with those found in similar studies with spring wheat, already noted (E. S. R,, 

 83, p. 137), and led to the general conclusion that "in the average of all 

 methods by wliich the crops are grown winter wheat has a marked advantage 

 over spring wheat, both in yields and profits per acre, at North Platte [Nebr.], 

 Akron [Colo.], and Hays, [Kans.], in the central portion of the Great Plains 

 and at Huntley, Mont. At the other stations, where either crop can be grown 

 profitably, the average differences in favor of either are not great enough to 

 be conclusive from the evidence at hand. 



It was further shown that in the case of winter wheat " the average differ- 

 ence in yields between early (deep) and late (shallow) fall plowing is 1 bu. 

 per acre. At most stations the difference is small, while at others the advan- 

 tage of one over the other depends on the season. At Scottsbluft" [Nebr.], North 

 Platte, Hays, and Amarillo [Tex.], the differences are rather consistenly in favor 

 of early plowing, and this method is more profitable at these stations. At the 

 other stations late plowing has netted larger returns. 



" Furrowing with a lister after harvest and leveling tlie ridges preparatory to 

 seeding have resulted in an average increase of 0.9 bu. over early plowing and 

 2.2 bu. over late plowing. As it is a cheaper method of preparation than plow- 

 ing, it has consequently been more profitable. At Hays and Amarillo it has been 

 the most profitable method. 



"Subsoiling has increased the yields over plowing without subsoiling at 5 of 

 the 10 stations at which it has been studied. At these stations it has been more 

 profitable than ordinarj' plowing. At the other stations it has been the least 

 profitable of the continuous-cropping methods. It has not shown any value in 

 overcoming drought. 



" Disked corn ground has given consistently high yields. This, together with 

 the low cost of preparation, has resulted in this method showing the highest 

 average net returns of any of the methods at all of the 11 stations where it has 

 been tried except at Huntley and Amarillo. These profits are based on the 

 assumption that the corn crop was so utilized as to pay for the cost of pro- 

 ducing it. 



