12 BULLETIN 222, U. S. DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE. 



In conformity with the foregoing explanation, Table IV gives in 

 detail the cost of producing barley in the shock, expressed in dollars 

 and cents and in bushels per acre at 41 cents per bushel in the shock. 



RESULTS AT THE SEVERAL STATIONS. 



No attempt will be made in this bulletin to discuss the various 

 types of soils found at the several stations. 1 It will be noted in the 

 tables that follow that the soils at some of the stations have given but 

 little response to differences in tillage methods under any climatic 

 conditions thus far obtaining. The soils at some other stations do 

 respond to tillage. Differences in yields are obtained from different 

 methods of tillage. The amount of variation in yields changes from 

 year to year with the changing combination of climatic conditions. 



JUDITH BASIN FIELD STATION, MONT. 



The results of five years are presented from the field station at 

 Moccasin, Mont., in the Judith Basin. The crop in the sixth year was 

 destroyed by hail before maturity and is not used in calculating the 

 averages. Four of the years have been productive of heavy yields, 

 but in the other year the yields were light. 



Barley, like the other spring-sown grain crops at this station, does 

 not exhibit marked differences in yield as a result of different prepara- 

 tions for the crop. In 1913 both fall and spring plowed barley land 

 show a marked drop in yields. In 1914 the same thing is noted on the 

 spring-plowed barley plat. This was due to injury from gophers 

 rather than to the difference in seed-bed preparation. This damage 

 with the consequent shortage of yield, unduly augments the average 

 differences. 



The uniformity of results obtained shows that the method of seed- 

 bed preparation is not an important factor in the production of spring- 

 sown crops at this place. The farmer should concern himself with the 

 problem of getting the work done at the most convenient time and in 

 the most economical manner. 



The lack of wide variation in yield is explained by the shallowness 

 of the soil on the station farm. The water that falls either in rain or 

 snow between the time of harvest of one crop and the commencement 

 of rapid growth of the next, during the years under study, was suffi- 

 cient to supply the proportion of water that the soil can retain within 

 reach of the crop. Water accumulated in the soil by the special 

 methods of cultivation in excess of this proportion was lost by pene- 

 trating beyond recovery by the plant, and no increase in yield was 

 realized from it. 



1 For a brief discussion of the different soil types, see U. S. Dept. of Agriculture Bui. 214, entitled 

 " Spring wheat in the Great Plains area: Relation of cultural methods to production." 



