TILLAGE AND ROTATION EXPERIMENTS AT NEPHI, UTAH. 11 



all vegetative growth, so that, in order to keep the fallow clean, some 

 weeding was necessary two or three times during the summer. It 

 seems probable that fall plowing turns under weed seeds and grain 

 kernels, some of which lie dormant until they are brought to the 

 surface again the next spring by replowing or disking the land. 

 Thus the operation which is intended to destroy all growth induces 

 further growth by bringing other seeds into a position favorable to 

 germination. Their growth requires frequent weeding of the fallow. 

 These extra operations were unnecessary on the spring-plowed plats, 

 and consequently the cost of producing crops on these plats was reduced 

 to a point substantially below that on the fall-plowed plats. 



The average cost of spring plowing was $1.93 per acre, while fall 

 plowing cost $2.13. Replowing the fall-plowed land cost on an 

 average $1.85 per acre, while double disking the fall-plowed land cost 

 about 75 cents per acre, making an average cost of $1.30 and increas- 

 ing the cost of fall plowing to $3.43. The subsequent weeding of the 

 fall-plowed land cost about 25 cents per acre. This, added to the 

 cost of plowing and replowing or double disking, makes the total cost 

 of fall plowing $3.68, as compared with $1.93 for spring plowing, a 

 difference of $1.75 per acre. These figures, of course, do not include 

 the cost of cultivating the fallow, seeding and harvesting the crop, 

 etc., which was the same on all plats and hence need not be con- 

 sidered here. 



It has been shown that spring plowing has given an average yield, 

 of 1.7 bushels per acre more than fall plowing. The average market 

 value of wheat at Nephi during the past four years has been 75 cents 

 per bushel. Spring plowing, then, has yielded $1.28 more per acre 

 than fall plowing. The extra income added to $1.75, the amount 

 saved by spring plowing as compared with fall plowing, makes the 

 difference in net return $3.03 per acre in favor of spring plowing. 



The fact that spring plowing at the substation was done as early 

 in the year as possible must receive emphasis at this point. The land 

 at that time was in good condition for plowing, and it turned over in 

 excellent shape. Later plowing was found to be less desirable. For 

 this reason it might be advisable for farmers in distributing their 

 farm labor to plow enough in the fall to allow them to plow all the 

 rest of their land at the proper time in the spring. This practice is 

 followed by many of the more successful farmers in the vicinity of 

 Nephi. 



Depth of Fall Plowing. 



Previous to 1908 all of the eight plats used in the fall depth-of- 

 plowing test were given treatment as nearly uniform as possible, 

 being alternately fallowed and cropped to whiter wheat. In the fall 

 of 1908 four adjacent plats, 16A, 17A, 18A, and 19A, were set aside 

 for this test. Alternate plats, 16C, 17C 5 18C, and 19C, were added 



