224 DRY LAND FARMING 



yield will be small should a dry season follow, because of 

 lack of sufficiently vigorous growth. The object sought 

 in planting wheat thus is to insure protection for the 

 plants in winter through the holding of the snow, and 

 by the breaking of the force of the cold winds because 

 of the presence of the stubbles. When winter wheat is 

 thus sown the ground should not be disced previously to 

 the sowing, as this would to a considerable degree re- 

 move the protection from the plants. The land should 

 also be free from weed life, else the weeds will crowd 

 the next season. Barley stubble is usually preferred for 

 such sowing, as the crop may be removed early to admit 

 of sowing the wheat early. 



Winter wheat may be sown so late in some localities 

 that it will not germinate before the advent of winter. 

 Reasonably good crops may be obtained in this way, 

 but they seldom or never equal those crops that are sown 

 in season. This method of sowing can only be made to 

 succeed where the winters are not severe, and even in 

 these it is not to be commended. There is the hazard that 

 germination will be imperfect and the plants begin to 

 grow so late that they have but little advantage over 

 spring wheat plants as to the time of maturing. Should 

 the seed not germinate until the arrival of warm weather 

 in the spring it is not likely that it will reach the heading 

 out stage. The time beyond which late germination will 

 fail to produce heads has not as yet been well defined. 



Where the conditions are suitable winter wheat is 

 to be preferred to spring wheat for reasons already given. 

 The winter cold of the Dakotas, and of the portions of 

 Manitoba and Saskatchewan included in the dry belt, 

 makes the growing of winter wheat considerably more 

 hazardous than that of spring wheat. In nearly all of 

 the remaining portions of the semi-arid country, the con- 

 ditions are more favorable to the growth of winter wheat, 

 and more especially where the larger portion of the 



