FIELD CROPS. 633 



Cereal experiments at the "Williston substation, F. R. Babcock (U. 8. Dept. 

 Agr. Bui. 270 (1915), pp. 36, figs, il).— Descriptions of the soil, weather con- 

 ditions with meteorological data, and the experimental methods employed are 

 given, followed by detailed results of experiments conducted in cooperation 

 with the North Dakota Experiment Station with spring and winter wheat and 

 with oats, barley, flax, and minor cereals, and including tabulated data on 

 yields of the varieties used, in some cases additional data being given on growth 

 and weight per bushel. 



" Spring wheats have given better results than winter wheats. Except in the 

 dry years, 1910 and 1911, the durum wheats have produced higlier yields than the 

 common spring wheats. Kubanka durum wheat (C. I. No. 1440) gave the highest 

 average yield of all of the spring wheats tested from 1908 to 1914, inclusive, 

 29.9 bu. per acre. Power fife wheat (C. I. No. 3697) stood second for the same 

 period, producing 2S.6 bu. per acre. The bluestem group has not yielded as 

 well as the durums and fifes, and the average weight per bushel has also been 

 lower. Rate-of-seeding tests with bluestem spring wheat have indicated tiuit the 

 highest yields are obtained from sowing 4 pk. to the acre. The average yields 

 from winter wheat are lower than those from the spring wheats, for winter 

 wheat frequently winterkills. Sowing winter wheat in grain stubble or stand- 

 ing corn gives protection to the plants and reduces the loss from winterkilling. 



" The best three varieties of oats for the seven years 1908 to 1914 are Abun- 

 dance, with an average yield of 66.4 bu. per acre ; Lincoln, 65.9 bu. ; and Si- 

 berian, 64.5 bu. These are all midseason varieties. The late-maturing varieties, 

 such as White Russian, and the very early varieties, Sixty-Day and Kherson, 

 have yielded much less than the midseason varieties. Rate-of-seeding tests with 

 Swedish Select oats indicate that the best yields are obtained by sowing from 

 4 to 6 pk. per acre. 



" The 6-rowed group of barley has yielded better than the 2-rowed group. 

 The highest average yield for the seven years (1908 to 1914), 39.9 bu., has been 

 produced by the Williston No. 170 (C. I. No. 882), a strain of Manchuria 

 barley. 



" Flax is grown with some difBculty on ground that is infested with weeds. 

 In the seven years that tests were made only four crops were harvested. The 

 average yield of the highest producing varietj' for these four years was 16.2 

 bu. per acre from the North Dakota No, 1221 (G. I. No. 16). Emmer and 

 spring rye have not given as high average yields as oats, barley, or wheat. 

 Proso, grown in field plats from 1912 to 1914, inclusive, gave an average yield 

 of seed per acre of 25 bu. Kursk millet, grown in a plat test in 1914, yielded 

 38 bu. of seed per acre." 



The effect of different methods of inoculation on the yield and protein 

 content of alfalfa and sweet clover, A. C. Aeny and R. W. Thatcher {Jour. 

 Amer. Soc. Agron., 7 {1915), No. 4, pp. 172-185). — This article gives results of 

 the effect of different methods of inoculation on the crop as shown in the 



harvest two years after se edin g. The methods include no inoculation, commer- 



'III "^ i .i-,^..i.i.A ' .»j, « t--— ^■ " • ■ "^^ 

 cial culture applied to the seed, commercial culture applied to the soil, soil from 



an old alfalfa field, soil from an old alfalfa field plus two tons of limestone per 



acre, and no inoculation but two tons of limestone. The yields of dry matter 



per acre in three cuttings by the different methods were, respectively, 7,343, 



7,750, 7,533, 7,969, 7,969, and 7,934 lbs., and the average protein content as 



16.34, 16.4, 16.97, 17, 18,02, and 16.67 per cent. 



The effect of inoculation of alfalfa with soil from a sweet-clover field is 



shown in yields per acre as follows: No inoculation 1.3 plats), 1,277, 1,683, and 



1,293 lbs.; with sweet-clover soil, 3,028 lbs.; and with alfalfa soil, 3,022 lbs. 



