THIRD ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART II. 57 



dally on our rich land, and it matures later, thereby increasing very 

 much the danger of the tender plants being killed by the hot sun. 



Tb^- absolute necessity of a rotation which includes the clovers 

 makes it important to consider the value of a small grain crop in the 

 light of its adaptability as a nurse crop, and measured by this standard 

 winter wheat, in that part of Iowa where it can be successfully grown, 

 is very much superior to oats. But throwing this out of consideration 

 altogether, i f is difficult to understand why we are growing so much oats 

 and so little winter wheat. In the year 1901, according to the figures 

 found in the annual report of the United States Department of Agricul- 

 ture, Iowa grew 4,104,180 acres of oats, the average yield per acre being 

 25.4 bushels and the average value per acre being $10.73. The average 

 value per acre of our winter wheat the same year was $10.56. For the 

 ten years beginning with 1892. the average yield of winter wheat was 

 15.6 bushels per acre; the average price on the farm December 1st of 

 each year was 56.8 cents and the average value per acre, $8.86. The aver- 

 age yield of oats for the same period was 31 bushels; the average price 

 on the farm December 1st, 21.8 cents and the average value per acre, 

 $6.75. a difference in favor of winter wheat of $2.11 per acre. For the 

 same period of ten years, the average value per acre of the corn grown 

 in Iowa is given by the same authority as $8.01 per acre, and the average 

 value of rye as $6.88 per acre. In other words, the gross value per acre 

 of the winter wheat crop of Iowa for a period of ten years exceeds the 

 value per acre of the corn crop by 85 cents, of the oats crop by $2.11 and 

 of the rye crop by $1.98. In the light of these figures it is rather diffi- 

 cult to understand why, with its almost 9,000,000 acres of corn, over 

 4,000,000 acres of oats and over 76,000 acres of rye, Iowa grows so little 

 winter wheat. It is true that winter wheat may be said not to be adapted 

 to the entire state. It can, however, be safely grown in all that part 

 south of the North-Western railroad and in some of that section north 

 of it. It does best in the very part of the state where oats is most un- 

 satisfactory. 



To grow a good crop of winter wheat requires a more careful prep- 

 aration of the seed bed than for oats. The ideal seed bed for wheat is 

 firm below and mellow above. The corn field, so far as the condition of 

 the soil is concerned, furnishes a seed bed that can hardly be improved. 

 The continual working of the field through the season compacts the 

 lower soil while leaving the upper two or three inches loose and mel- 

 low. The corn field offers the ideal seed bed ready made, and as this 

 is where clover is .usually wanted, it is the place for the winter wheat 

 field. This makes it necessary that the corn be cut and shocked, a prac- 

 tice already established on most well managed, average sized farms in 

 this state. The wheat should be drilled in, using a disk drill in prefer- 

 ence to any other and either drilling closely around each shock or mov- 

 ing the shocks. A careful driver will put the wheat within one to three 

 inches of the bottom of the shock. I have found it better to cross the 

 rows; that is, to drill opposite the way the corn is laid by, rather than 

 run with them. There are two reasons for this: one, because when drill- 

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