10 BULLETIN 219,, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



The yields reported in the column headed " Listed" are also from 

 land continuously cropped to corn. Where the yield reported is 

 from one plat only, it is from a plat that receives no cultivation 

 before planting with the lister. Where it is given as an average of 

 two plats, one is disked and cultivated during the spring before 

 planting. All the other yields are from corn in rotations with other 

 crops, as designated. 



No attempt is made in this bulletin to discuss the various types 

 of soils at the different stations. The yields show that the soils at 

 some stations offer very little, if any, response to differences in til- 

 lage methods, while other soils do respond to tillage, the response 

 varying from year to year with the varying combinations of climatic 

 factors. A brief discussion of the soils at the different stations is 

 given in a bulletin simultaneously prepared (Bulletin 214 of the depart- 

 ment series) entitled ' ' Spring wheat in the Great Plains area : Relation 

 of cultural methods to production." 



COMPARISON OF CULTURAL METHODS. 



The methods under study vary a great deal in the labor involved 

 and in the consequent cost of production. An accurate record has 

 been kept of all farm operations performed in pursuance of the 

 various methods under trial. These records have been averaged 

 for eight representative stations having the longest period of trial. 

 It is recognized that this average does not exactly represent the 

 requirements of any station. The amount of work required for 

 some methods varies with the season and with the soil. While 

 recognizing this, it seems more practicable to use a fixed basis for 

 all the stations than to try to adjust the cost for each station sepa- 

 rately. 



Table IV gives in the columns headed "Number of operations" 

 the average number of times each of the separate operations have 

 been performed in growing the crop. The amount of labor performed 

 under each of the methods was neither more nor less than that which 

 the man in charge believed to be necessary. 



In practice it is probable that much of the corn produced in the 

 dry-farming section will be either siloed or fed in the bundle rather 

 than shelled and sold on the market. The cost of production there- 

 fore has been computed for the corn in the shock. 



In computing the costs of the various operations a fixed wage of 

 $2 a day for a man and $1 a day for a horse was adopted. This 

 may be above or below the actual labor cost in any particular locality, 

 but it is believed to be a fair average and one that will afford a 

 profitable market to the farmer for his labor. The time required 

 for men and teams to cover a given acreage in the several farm opera- 



