GROWING GRAIN CROPS IN DRY AREAS 233 



severity in the winter weather: (2) on the advance- 

 ment of the grain as the result of early sowing, and (3) 

 on the amount of the rain that falls in the autumn months 

 and the period covered by such rainfall. Where the 

 autumns are short and dry and the winters are long 

 and severe, winter wheat should seldom or never be pas- 

 tured, as pasturing will remove the covering which the 

 top growth would otherwise furnish. In other words, 

 the aim should be to avoid the necessity for pasturing 

 winter wheat in areas where protection for the crop is in 

 a sense a necessity. When the crop is sown quite early, 

 as early as July or early August, in seasons of more than 

 the usual amount of precipitation, the growth may be- 

 come so advanced that grazing will be advantageous to 

 the crop. In some areas, as, for instance, the Flathead 

 valley in Montana, where the autumns are long and moist, 

 the preceding summer weather being usually dry, the 

 grazing of winter wheat is regularly practised. It is fol- 

 lowed, in part at least, to obtain a source of autumn pas- 

 ture, which from other sources is usually in short supply. 

 The profit from such grazing, though apparently seldom 

 challenged, is more or less problematical as far as the 

 author has been able to ascertain. No experiments have 

 been conducted to test the influence of such depasturing 

 on the yields of the crop, nor have any been conducted 

 to throw light on the question as to the best season for 

 grazing the same. When the winters are mild and the 

 precipitation is considerable at that season, care must 

 be taken to avoid grazing should the soil be unduly wet. 

 Harvesting. As far as practicable, the crop should 

 be harvested at an early rather than a late stage of 

 ripening in order to prevent shelling in the grain. This 

 does not apply equally to the club varieties of wheat, as 

 these do not shell readily. But it does apply to such 

 varieties as the Turkey Red, and wheat of the Durum 

 types. The loss from these through shelling as a result 



