Progressive Agriculture 65 



the soil in better condition to take in the later 

 rains. 



The growth of all plants can be crowded, they 

 can be urged and encouraged. Their growth can 

 be hastened in many ways. That is why some 

 fields of corn will mature in 90 days while others 

 require 120 days or more. Much attention should 

 be given to the selection of quick growing varieties. 

 The great value of the quick growing crops is that 

 they may be planted late, when the available 

 plant food is most abundant and the general 

 weather conditions most favorable, which is in 

 mid-summer, and if the soil conditions are at their 

 best they get through to maturity in much less 

 time. 



CHAPTER VII 



WHEAT 



Wheat was the first crop grown by the early 

 settlers throughout the great central west, so 

 far as history can be traced, and when the soil 

 was new and did not as readily assume unfavorable 

 conditions, the yield was good and promised the 

 pioneer great and quick profits. Some early 

 yields and profits from wheat on the virgin soils 

 of Minnesota and Iowa, coupled with advent of 

 the self binder, prompted the speculator and the 

 capitalist to monopolize and operate large tracts 

 of land. 



In 1877 leading stockholders of the Northern 

 Pacific Railway sought to induce settlement of 



