WHEAT 



51 



is best adapted to fairly level land but it may be 

 used successfully on a sloping field by running 

 the furrows across the slope. Or in the case of 

 a field sloping in different directions, it is possible 

 to practice "contour" listing, viz., listing around 

 the hill, making the furrows always at right 

 angles with the slope. Thus the rain which falls 

 on the field will be caught in the furrows and led 

 straight downward into the soil, rather than down 

 the slope by surface drainage. 



Experiments in preparing the seed bed for 

 winter wheat, when wheat was grown each season, 

 compared with late plowing, early plowing, early 

 listing and summer fallowing, were carried on for 

 six consecutive years (1906 to 1912) at the Hays 

 branch experiment station in western Kansas. 

 The crop of 1909 was entirely destroyed by hail. 

 The average yield of five crops by the several 

 methods is given in the following table. 



TABLE III 



Giving yield of wheat for five years, 1906 to 

 1912, and percentage of moisture in soil at seeding 

 time for 1911 and 1912, Fort Hays branch experi- 

 ment station, western Kansas. 



*Decrease in yield. 



