45S DRY LAND FARMING 



Twenty-five acres of grain were grown at Chester, 

 Mont., in the summer of 1910. The grains comprised 

 durum wheat, speltz, oats, spring rye, white hulless and 

 other barley and Canadian field peas. 



They were grown on the Experiment farm main- 

 tained by the Great Northern railroad. The land had 

 been summer-fallowed the previous year. The light 

 winter snowfall at Chester was carried away in Feb- 

 ruary, and much of it went into the streams. The month 

 of March was abnormally warm and it was rainless; no 

 rain fell in April nor until about May 10. As the land 

 was not directly under the control of the Great North- 

 ern road earlier, no harrowing was done until about 

 April first. By that time the moisture had so far left 

 the soil that the grain did not germinate until rain fell 

 in May, as stated. The total precipitation at Chester 

 from September 1, 1909, -to September 1, 1910, was less 

 than 7 inches. The rainfall during the entire growing 

 period was about 3^ inches. The intensity of the 

 drought may be understood from the statement that, 

 save in some of the lower depressions, the grass never 

 became green from the opening of spring until the snow 

 fell, about the middle of the following November. The 

 yields of the various grains ran from 10 to 18 bushels 

 per acre. On the Great Northern demonstration farm 

 at Cut Bank, Mont., the ' conditions being very similar 

 as to weather, 20 bushels of durum wheat were reaped 

 per acre, and 30 bushels of Swedish Select oats. 



