26 BULLETIN 268, U. B. DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE. 



necessary to resort to either harrowing or disking, or both. The 

 deeper the plowing, the more thorough should this preparation be. 

 In the planting of corn, potatoes, and most other intertilled crops 

 generally grown in the dry-farming regions, this accessory tillage 

 between plowing and planting is not so essential. These crops do 

 not require as firm a seed bed as the small grains, and there is also a 

 better opportunity for such tillage immediately after the crop has 

 been planted. Moreover, it has been found that when the plowing 

 has been properly done, better germination and growth are generally 

 secured where there is little or no stirring of the soil between plowing 

 and planting except such as is necessary for the destruction of weeds. 



REGIONAL ADAPTATION OF CROPS. 



Spring wheat is adapted to the northern portion of the Great Plains. 

 Its growth in North Dakota and Montana has been quite generally 

 profitable in all years when seasonal conditions permitted the profit- 

 able production of any crop. Spring wheat is adapted, though in a 

 somewhat lesser degree, to conditions in western South Dakota, west- 

 ern Nebraska, and eastern Colorado. It has not shown itself to be 

 adapted to conditions in western. Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and 

 northeastern New Mexico. 



Winter wheat will tend to replace spring wheat where it can be 

 successfully grown. It has proved to be adapted to conditions in 

 Montana, some parts of South Dakota, Nebraska, Colorado, and the 

 major portion of Kansas. In southwestern Kansas and northwestern 

 Texas it has not been profitably produced. It has given higher yields 

 than spring wheat at Huntley, Belle Fourche, Scottsbluff, North 

 Platte, Akron, and Hays. 



Oats are better adapted to conditions existing in Montana and 

 North Dakota than to those of any other sections of the Plains in- 

 cluded in these investigations. They have been profitably grown bj^ 

 some method at Belle Fourche, Scottsbluff, North Platte, Akron, 

 Hays, and Amarillo, but they have shown markedly less adaptation 

 to the conditions at these stations than to those farther north. They 

 are not at all adapted to conditions such as have existed at Garden 

 City and Dalhart. 



Barley, like spring wheat and oats, is better adapted to the northern 

 than to the southern portion of the Plains. At North Platte and 

 Akron it is less adapted but has been profitably produced. At Belle 

 Fourche and Scottsbluff its growth is a questionable practice. In 

 most of western Kansas and northwestern Texas its growth should 

 be discouraged. 



Corn has been grown at all the field stations in the Plains area. At 

 only five stations, Huntley, Dickinson, Scottsbluff, North Platte, and 

 Akron, has it shown possibilities for profitable production as a cash 



