WHEAT 129 



CONSERVATION OF SOIL MOISTURE 



Scientific tillage to conserve the soil moisture 

 and prepare a suitable seed and root bed is just 

 as important in dry farming on the Pacific coast 

 as on the western plains, and the same principles 

 apply though the practice may vary somewhat. 



Professor Geo. Severance of the Washington 

 experiment station gives the following summary of 

 methods for best dry farming practice: 



" 1. Keep up the supply of humus by chopping 

 in all the straw and stubble available. 



"2. Disk the stubble before the fall and winter 

 rains begin, to absorb the precipitation as quickly 

 and completely as possible. 



"3. As soon as the soil is fit to work in spring 

 work up two to four inches of loose, dry soil to 

 hold moisture. 



"4. Follow the plow as closely as possible 

 with a subsurface packer. 



"5. Harrow wheat in spring as soon after the 

 soil is fit to work as the wheat is well rooted. 



"Successful dryland tillage does not call so much 

 for an increased amount of labor as for labor 

 properly applied." 



VARIETIES TO GROW 



Club head wheat (Triticum sativum compac- 

 tum), a sub-species of common wheat (Triticum 

 sativum vulgare), is the type most largely grown 

 in the Pacific coast states. This is a soft, white 

 wheat not so valuable for milling as the wheat 

 of the western plains, for it is necessary to blend 

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