CEREAL CULTIVATION WESTERN AREA 395 



In eastern Oregon " drying out " is generally considered 

 to be due to overseeding during a wet period followed by 

 a dry period. Too many culms to a square foot are 

 produced for proper filling of the spikes in the dry 

 period. 



421. Cover-crops. Cereals as cover-crops have such 

 definite value for green-manuring in this area, that there 

 is little to be said about them, except in that connection 

 (410). Orchards are usually kept clean under dry-farming. 

 Where soil-blowing occurs, rye is sometimes sown to hold 

 the soil in place for a later crop. Alfalfa may thus be 

 started in the spring in fall-sown rye. 



GROWING THE CROP 



422. Methods of summer tillage. The essential fea- 

 tures of summer tillage in this area are as follows : (1) The 

 ground is plowed or double-disked, either at once after 

 harvest or early in the following spring. (2) The packer 

 is usually employed immediately after plowing, if at all. 

 Often the packer is not used in summer tillage, the soil 

 being allowed to settle itself into a compact condition in 

 the time that elapses. (3) A coarse mulch is maintained 

 at the surface, but only stirred when it is moist. (4) Cul- 

 tivation is done with such implements as will leave the 

 surface ridged or furrowed. (5) To destroy weeds in dry 

 weather, a form of knife weeder may be used. (6) Pas- 

 turing the summer fallow with sheep to keep down weeds, 

 where sheep are adapted, is both profitable and effective 

 as to the weeding. 



423. Fall and spring plowing. Heretofore it has been 

 the practice of the farmers generally in the dry-farming 

 districts of this area, to plow in the spring, whether for a 



