CEEEAL EXPEEIMENTS AT JUDITH BASIIST SUBSTATIO]!T. 



35 



In' 1911, 14 varieties were grown in twentietli-acre plats. The land 

 used had been cropped to barley in 1909 and 1910. It was spring 

 plowed m 1911 and the seed bed was in good tilth when the varieties 

 were seeded on May 15. The dry weather in July caused the flax to 

 begin to ripen early and the heavy rains in August started a second 

 growth. This made the flax late in maturing and reduced the 

 yields. 



In 1912, 17 varieties were grown. These were seeded on May 14 

 in twentieth-acre plats on land that had been cropped to winter 

 wheat the year before. Flax was the only spring grain that pro- 

 duced any seed in 1912, the others being destroyed by hail. The 



Fig. 15.— Varietal test plats of flax at the Judith Basin substation, 1915. (From a photograph lent by 

 the Office of Exhibits, U. S. Department of Agriculture.) 



hail came when the flax was m fuU bloom. While it undoubtedly 

 reduced the yields, the plants made a second growth and produced 

 a fairly good crop. In 1913 the flax was grown in tenth-acre plats 

 on fallow ground. The yields that year were quite Satisfactory. 

 In 1914 and 1915 the flax varieties were grown on fallow ground in 

 rephcated fiftieth-acre plats. A view of the varietal test plats in 

 1915 is shown in figure 15. 



The yields in 1914 were reduced by a disease known as canker. 

 This disease attacks the young plant just above the cotyledons and 

 apparently stops its growth until it puts out basal branches below 

 the injured part. The growth is then normal, but the time required 

 to produce these branches makes the plants late in maturing. The 

 seed is produced on these branches, which take the place of the 

 central stem. 



