CEREAL CULTIVATION EASTERN AREA 321 



348. Cereal crop mixtures. The cereal crops them- 

 selves may be grown together, sometimes with consider- 

 able advantage in yields. > The practice is an old one. 

 Mixtures of rye and wheat called meteil, and of spelt 

 and wheat called maslin, have been grown in southern 

 and southeastern Europe for a long time. Very few trials 

 of cereal crop mixtures have been made in the United 

 States. At the Illinois Experiment Station, it was at- 

 tempted to improve the spring wheat crop by sowing it 

 with oats, which failed of attainment. At the Iowa Sta- 

 tion, different combinations of wheat and oats at various 

 rates of seeding were tested for two years. The best 

 combination was wheat and oats at 4 pecks each, but all 

 mixtures were better than either crop sown alone. In 

 Minnesota, mixtures of wheat and oats at various rates of 

 seeding of each were tested in 1891, compared with two 

 rates of seeding for oats alone and two for wheat alone. 

 Mixtures of 2^ bushels of oats and J bushel of wheat sown 

 to the acre gave best results. 



349. Experiments in Canada. In the 5 years, 1900- 

 1904, tests were made of crop mixtures by Grisdale at 

 the Central Experimental Farm, Ottawa, Canada, as 

 follows : Oats and barley ; barley, oats, and peas ; and 

 wheat, barley, oats, and peas ; compared with peas alone, 

 barley alone, and oats alone. Much the largest yield 

 was of oats alone, 3751 pounds to the acre. Mixed 

 oats and barley ranked second, and barley alone third. 



Experiments in Ontario with cereal crop mixtures are 

 much the most complete that the author has noted. 

 These have been conducted by Zavitz at the Ontario 

 Experiment Farm, each series covering 5 or 6 years' 

 time. The first experiment included oats, barley, wheat, 

 and peas, in all possible combinations, including every 



