412 THE SMALL GRAINS 



dry-farming substation, a comparison in 1913 of 3 plats of winter 

 wheat harrowed in the spring with 3 not harrowed, and of 5 plats 

 harrowed and 5 not harrowed, in 1914, shows a difference in acre- 

 yields, in favor of non-harrowing, of 19 bushels in the former year 

 and 1.4 bushels in the latter. Nevertheless, in eastern Oregon, 

 spring harrowing of winter grain is a common practice. Further 

 experimentation is needed, for the question is one of immediate 

 importance. 



Three things are attempted in harrowing wheat, (1) to 

 break the surface crust of soil and check evaporation, 

 (2) to thicken or thin the stand, and (3) to kill weeds. 

 For thinning the stand, the harrow teeth are set to cut 

 deeply, and for thickening the stand, they are slanted 

 backward, so as to affect the crown of the plants just 

 enough to promote further tillering. How effective these 

 measures are in changing the stand, experiments have not 

 yet determined. 



Sometimes following the harrow, the weeder is used 

 until the crop has grown a foot or more in height. 



437. Mowing or pasturing cereals in the Western area 

 is seldom or never necessary for checking growth, but 

 pasturing is often done for the benefit of the animals 

 (usually hogs) themselves, while incidentally the land is 

 improved through manuring and turning back the re- 

 mains of the straw and stubble to the soil. Winter 

 wheat intended for market may be pastured from about 

 April 1 to May 15. Either winter or spring wheat or 

 hooded barley is sometimes sown about May 1 purposely 

 for spring and summer pasture. Barley makes more 

 growth than wheat in the same time, and hogs like it 

 better. 



Almost all pasturing, but particularly in the Columbia 

 Basin, is a process of " hogging off," in which hogs are 

 turned on at such a time as will allow them to remove 



