FOURTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART VI. 399 



growth, even though a stand of the plants could be obtained. The same 

 is true of infertile soils too poor to grow a crop of grain other than rye, 

 in good form. Then there are grain-growing lands on the border of the 

 semi-arid country and elsewhere in which the soil is so light as to lift 

 with the winds, on such soils it is not easy to get a good stand of the 

 plants should the season turn dry. But on the average prairie soils under 

 average conditions, a stand of the plants may be obtained almost any 

 season. 



Some growers sow the seed on these soils along with the grain. The 

 plan is excellent in a season of normal growth, unless the soil be very 

 rich. When sown thus thfe seed is just mixed with the grain. Usually it 

 is mixed in the grain box. A bag of grain is put into the grain box and 

 then' a little seed, enough for an acre or so is poured along the grain 

 from end to end of the box, and a little mixing follows with the hands. 

 This means a little delay in sowing, but it is not a serious 

 delay. On soils consisting mainly of clay this plan would noi 

 work very well. The seed would be buried so deeply that it 

 would not' come up. but it is not so with prairie soils. It will come up 

 readily even though buried two and a half to three inches deep. With 

 drills which have a grass seed attachment the seed may be sown in' fine 

 form the same as grass seed. The attachment should be in front of the 

 grain tubes. 



In a normal season and on average prairie soils, the rape plants will 

 remain so small as not to injure the grain, while it is being grown, or to 

 interfere with the harvesting of the same. But in a season of much 

 growth, the rape plants become so large as to make the cutting and cur- 

 ing of the grain more or less troublesome. This will be so in all. or 

 nearly all, instances in which the grain lodges, and it will be so in many 

 instances in a barley crop whether it should stand or lodge, since the 

 shade furnished by the barley is not so dense as the shade furnished by 

 oats. 



Because of this hazard that the rape-plants may thus give trouble 

 in harvesting the grain, some are beginning to practice sowing the rape 

 seed a little later. Happily, this is being made entirely practicable on 

 prairie soils, but the introduction of the weeder. This implement is 

 surely a godsend to the farmers who live on the weedy, grain-growing 

 prairies of the West, if they will only use it as they may. It is the firm 

 conviction of the writer that if farmers will run the weeder once or twice 

 over their grain fields at the proper season they will add many bushels 

 in the aggregate to the yields of the crop. This makes it easily possible 

 to sow the rape seed a little later than the sowing of the grain, and to 

 cover it with the weeder. As the weeder will far more than pay for its 

 use in the benefit resulting to the crop, the covering to the rape seed 

 comes without any cost. But of course the seed must needs be sown by 

 hand or by a hind machine. When thus sown, the rape plants do not 

 get so large as to injure the grain crop. On. the other hand, should dry 

 weather follow, the hazard of failure to get a stand of the plants is 

 increased. 



Rape seed may not only be sown on spring crops, but it may also be 

 sown bn winter crops, such as winter wheat or winter rye, and in the' 



