DRY FARM CROPPING PRACTICES 99 



used, the tenderer ones from the south often failing to 

 live through our severe winters. 



70. Rape. — As late summer and fall pasturage for beef 

 cattle, sheep and swine, rape sown in rows two to three 

 feet part and cultivated has proven an excellent crop. 



71. Corn. — The future of corn in the dry belt is quite 

 promising. The yield of grain is low and the value of the 

 forage in the very dry parts is not high in relation to 

 its cost, yet the crop leaves the soil in such a favorable 

 condition for subsequent grain crops that its more gen- 

 eral utilization for fodder, silage, pasture or grain seems 

 almost essential on the lighter, warmer soils in the drier 

 sections of the southern prairies. It is altogether prob- 

 able that corn will to a limited extent be used in such 

 areas as a partial substitute for the fallow. Corn 

 ground that has been kept clean has yielded practically 

 as much grain as the fallow at several stations in the 

 semi-arid belt of Canada as well as in the United States. 



72. Sunflowers. — This crop has averaged nearly twice 

 as large a yield as corn at Saskatoon during the past six 

 years. Until the last two or three seasons it has not 

 been considered of any value as fodder, but recent trials 

 in Montana, and at Saskatoon as well, indicate that it 

 can be quite satisfactorily ensiled and that the cattle 

 eat it apparently with relish and do well upon it. The 

 sunflower is so productive and so hardy that if it proves 

 as good a silage crop as the early trials indicate, it will 

 be a safe and probably a profitable crop to grow. 



73. Suitable Crop Management Practices. — The crop 

 management practices the farmer in the dry portions of 

 the Canadian West should avoid are late seeding, thick 

 seeding, shallow seeding, late harvesting and the use 

 of varieties that shatter easily or that are too short in the 



