10 



view, ^u gj ve better results than double that quantity. When 

 barnyard manure is used as a top-dressing for wheat it should 

 be well rotted and finely divided, and preferably spread with 

 a wide-tired manure spreader. On most loams and alluvial 

 soils on which wheat is grown in rotation the use of barnyard 

 manure, especially its direct use, is unnecessary, but on light 

 clay soils it often proves profitable. 



The application of large quantities of available nitrogen, 

 either in commercial fertilizers or barnyard manure, usually 

 results in a heavy growth of straw and a consequent tendency 

 to lodge. A complete fertilizer, or one containing nitrogen, 

 phosphoric acid, and potash, is generally to be recommended, 

 and while no rule applicable to all cases can be laid down, the 

 use of 300 to 500 pounds of a fertilizer mixture furnishing in 

 plant food 3.3 per cent of nitrogen, 12 per cent of available 

 phosphoric acid, and 4 per cent of potash is very common. 

 Ordinarily on poor soils the application of nitrogen and potash 

 may be relatively high, but on soils in a fairly good state of 

 fertility the quantity of these elements may be reduced. 

 Commercial fertilizers are more profitable as a rule on clay 

 soils than on the richer loams, and throughout the western 

 wheat area of the country they are little used. Appli cations 

 26 of 25 to 40 bushels of lime per acre are often very beneficial, 

 especially on soils treated with sulphate and chlorid of am- 

 monia for a series of years. Top-dressings with nitrate of soda 

 are sometimes given after the crop has made some growth, 

 but if the plants are in a vigorous condition in the spring no 

 top-dressing is necessary. 



Green manuring with leguminous crops is very desirable, 

 but when a heavy green crop is plowed under it is best to 

 follow it with a hoed crop before putting the land into wheat. 

 Benefit is derived also when leguminous plants are grown before 

 wheat and other crops and only the stubble is plowed under. 



Summer fallowing, which is seldom followed in humid sec- 

 tions, is practiced very extensively in some of the wheat 

 regions on the Pacific coast and in those Western States where 

 dry-farming methods are required. To mature profitable 

 crops the land in some of these sections requires the rainfall 

 of two seasons, and hence wheat generally is grown on land 

 that has had a season of rest and has stored up sufficient 

 moisture to supply the demands of the crop. Cultivation of the 

 summer fallow is practiced to conserve the soil moisture and to 

 increase the store of available plant food. On lands that receive 

 adequate rainfall summer fallow can not be as profitable as 

 the culture of some leguminous crop, which not only adds 



