SOILS FOR WHEAT 145 



Illinois, fourth; Indiana, fifth; Missouri, sixth; Minnesota, 

 seventh; Kansas, eighth; South Dakota, ninth; and North 

 Dakota, tenth. The average yield in the United States for 

 the ten years from 1902 to 1911 was 14 bushels to the acre. 

 Nevada has the highest average yield for the same period, 

 28.4 bushels, but this is only on 30,000 to 40,000 acres. 

 South Carolina has the lowest average yield, 8.3 bushels. 

 Under favorable conditions, yields of 30 bushels or more an 

 acre may be obtained in any of the states. The average is 

 kept down by poor methods of culture, insects, diseases, 

 storms, and unfavorable weather conditions. The average 

 value of the wheat crop to the acre is not in exact proportion 

 to the yield, for the price per bushel varies greatly. Nevada 

 has the highest average acre value of wheat, $27.52, and 

 Arkansas the lowest, $8.80. 



SOILS AND FERTILIZERS 



183. Soils. Wheat is adapted to a very wide range of 

 soils, and grain of excellent quality is produced on very light 

 as well as on very heavy soils. The type of soil does not seem 

 to affect the crop greatly, either in quality or quantity, so 

 long as the needed plant food and moisture are available. 

 These conditions may be supplied on almost any arable soil, 

 by good methods of cropping and tillage. As a rule, how- 

 ever, the better the soil the better the yield, unless the land is 

 so rich that the crop lodges before it matures, in which case 

 grain of poor quality is sure to be produced. 



The best wheat sections are in that portion of the tem- 

 perate zones where there is an annual rainfall of from 20 to 40 

 inches, distributed quite uniformly throughout the growing 

 season. Wheat, however, is grown in the Pacific states, 

 where most of the rainfall comes during the winter and very 

 little of it during the growing season; but soils in this section 



