396 THE SMALL GRAINS 



spring crop or as a beginning of summer tillage. In 

 recent years experiment station men have recommended 

 fall plowing, because of results of observations and exper- 

 iments they have made. Fall plowing would also appear 

 logical, because of the occurrence of so large a percentage 

 of the rainfall in the winter. 



Merrill (1910, pp. 129-133), after citing experiments 

 showing a greater moisture content in the soils of plats 

 plowed in the fall than in those plowed in the spring, also 

 reported the results of 3 tests on the time of plowing, in 

 which there was a gain of 2.4, 4.11, and 4.27 bushels of 

 wheat on fall plowing over that on spring plowing, other 

 conditions being the same. He decided that " with the 

 invariable increase in yield and in the light of the many 

 experiments favorable to fall plowing, we may safely con- 

 clude that it is a profitable practice." At the same time 

 the fact is mentioned that " fall-plowed fields are more 

 likely to be weedy and covered with volunteer wheat than 

 are the spring-plowed fields." 



In certain experiment station bulletins from Washing- 

 ton, Idaho, and Wyoming, fall plowing is recommended, 

 without citing particular experimental evidence. At the 

 same time it appears that the most common methods 

 actually practiced in the Columbia Basin are (1) early 

 plowing in spring followed by summer tillage, and (2) 

 early disking in spring followed by plowing several weeks 

 later. Even for spring crops, plowing is usually done in 

 this district in the spring. However, "it is generally 

 conceded that better yields are secured from fall plowing 

 than from spring plowing, provided the land is reason- 

 ably clean " (Hunter, 1907, p. 22). At the Lethbridge, 

 Alberta, Experiment Farm, land plowed in the fall has 

 given poorer returns than that plowed in the spring, for 



