WHEAT 47 



interval between harvesting and planting. The 

 plan should be, in the preparation of the seed bed, 

 to put the soil in the most favorable condition 

 to receive the rain and carry it downward into 

 the subsoil. This is provided by disking soon 

 after harvest or late in the fall, or early in the 

 spring. Deep plowing a long time before planting 

 leaves the soil mellow and rough, enlarges the 

 water reservoir, and favors the absorption of heavy 

 rains. But the best plan to store moisture, as 

 determined in part by experiments conducted 

 by the writer and the experience of a number of 

 western farmers, is the method of listing the soil 

 in deep furrows and high ridges soon after harvest 

 or in the fall after the crops of corn or kafir have 

 been cut and removed. If this work cannot be 

 accomplished in the fall, winter listing or early 

 spring listing is desirable on such lands as shall 

 again be planted to intertilled crops or which may 

 be summer fallowed in preparation for fall wheat. 



THE LISTING METHOD FOR WHEAT SEED BED 



In preparing the land for winter wheat list 

 the ground with the ordinary corn lister as soon 

 after harvest as possible. The listed furrows 

 are run about three and one-half feet apart, 

 very much the same as when the lister is used 

 for planting corn. Later, when the weeds have 

 started, the soil is worked back into the listed 

 furrows by means of the harrow or disk cultivator. 

 Several cultivations are usually required with a 

 spike tooth harrow or disk in order to level the 

 field and bring it into good seed bed condition. 



