THE TILLAGE OF STUBBLE LAND 161 



demn the practice wherever found. The best evidence 

 indicates that the sooner we can find a substitute for 

 burning stubble the better it will be for the land, as well 

 as for the people who occupy the land after us. 



132. Surface Cultivation Sometimes Preferable to Plow- 

 ing. In the year 1912 on rich friable land that was 

 free from weeds and grass, as large returns were secured 

 in a second crop after a good fallow from sowing wheat 

 on untilled ground, as was secured from the most in- 

 tensively cultivated field. The practice of plowing for a 

 second crop is not so necessary in a dry climate on soils 

 in good physical condition as those of us who come from 

 a more humid area are likely to suppose. In the absence 

 of grass and in the presence of short stubble, soils of 

 good physical condition often produce as large net re- 

 turns with cereal crops when thoroughly double disked 

 early in the fall or in the spring immediately before 

 seeding as W 7 hen fall-plowed. This is particularly true 

 in the drier parts of the prairies on land that is well 

 fallowed every third year. Disking fields that have a 

 long stubble is objectionable since it places the stubbles 

 in a horizontal rather than an upright position and there- 

 by lessens the efficiency of the seeder. Under such con- 

 ditions the stubble is often, in practice, either burned off 

 or the field left uncultivated. ''Stubbling in" either on 

 cultivated or uncultivated stubble is not advisable, ex- 

 cept on clean land in a good state of tilth. On old land 

 plowing is generally advisable fall plowing being pre- 

 ferable in the humid regions and in wet autumns, and 

 spring plowing in the dry regions and following dry 

 autumns. 



The average yield of wheat on surface cultivated stub- 

 ble at Saskatoon on clean laud has been 22 bus. 25 Ibs. 



