668 



WHEAT 



WHEAT 



manure plowed under immediately before seeding 

 to wheat is likely to make the soil too loose for the 

 best yield of that crop. 



Summer-fallowing is practiced extensively in the 

 semi-arid regions, where the crop is not irrigated. 

 A considerable proportion of the wheat of North 

 America is now produced in regions having an 

 annual rainfall of less than twenty inches. The 

 soil of these regions is usually very deep, so that 

 there is little loss of moisture by percolation ; 

 almost all of the rainfall that does not run off the 

 surface or pass through the tissues of the plant is 

 lost by evaporation from the soil. The effect of 

 the summer-fallow is to conserve a large part of 

 the rainfall during the year the land is kept fal- 

 lowed, and thus greatly to increase the supply of 

 soil moisture for the following crop. In very dry 

 regions it is customary to fallow every other year, 

 but where the rainfall is not so meager, two or 

 three crops intervene. Summer-fallowing is very 

 destructive to the humus, but it increases the supply 

 of easily soluble plant-food materials, and these, 

 with the greater moisture supply, produce much 

 larger crops than can be secured when the land is 

 cropped continuously. Barnyard manure cannot be 

 used in this region for the wheat crop. 



Wheat is raised under these conditions in central 

 and western Kansas, Nebraska, most of the 

 Dakotas, eastern Washington, Oregon and Califor- 

 nia, and in Manitoba, Alberta and Saskatchewan. 

 Experiments indicate that the use of commercial 

 fertilizers for wheat or other cereal crop is not of 

 immediate profit in this region, and as barnyard 

 manure dries out the soil the problem of maintain- 

 ing fertility is a serious one. Doubtless it is to be 

 accomplished by seeding to perennial grasses or 

 legumes for a period of years. In the eastern 

 states, where the rainfall is ample and where the 

 soluble plant-food materials are continually leached 

 from the soil, commercial fertilizers are used with 

 profit, either on the wheat crop direct or on a 

 preceding crop. Throughout much of this region 

 wheat is grown because it is useful in filling out a 

 rotation or in providing a nurse crop for grass 

 and clover rather than because it is profitable in 

 itself. 



If wheat follows corn the land should receive 

 ten to thirty loads of barnyard manure before 

 plowing for the latter crop. This is much better 

 than applying manure directly to wheat, which, 

 however, will generally be benefited by an appli- 

 cation of commercial fertilizer. The nature and 

 amount of such fertilizer will depend largely on 

 the character of the soil. The only accurate 

 method of ascertaining the manurial requirements 

 for any particular soil is to conduct a test on the 

 soil in question. 



A complete fertilizer, that is, one containing 

 nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash, is generally 

 preferable to one containing only one or two 

 of these' substances. On a light, well-drained soil, 

 relatively more phosphoric acid is needed, while on 

 a heavy moist soil more nitrogen, preferably in 

 the form of nitrate, should be used. Two to four 

 hundred pounds of what is known to the trade as 



a 4-12-4 fertilizer is frequently used. The form 

 in which the phosphoric acid is combined does not 

 make much difference if the material is very finely 

 ground. 



Place in the rotation. (T. L. Lyon.) 



Wheat should always be grown in a rotation 

 with other crops. It is particularly benefited by 

 such treatment and suffers in productiveness very 

 rapidly when grown continuously on the same soil. 

 Wheat yields begin to decrease on the prairie soils 

 within a few years after they are broken, while 

 corn will continue to yield without diminution for 

 ten, twenty or even thirty years on some of the 

 rich prairie soils. 



The rotations in which wheat is grown vary in 

 different parts of the country. In the New England 

 and north Atlantic states, where corn is raised 

 largely for silage, a system consisting of corn, 

 wheat, clover is frequently followed. This is well 

 suited to dairy-farming. Where oats are needed, 

 they usually follow directly after corn and precede 

 wheat, making the rotation corn, oats, wheat, clo- 

 ver. Potatoes are frequently substituted for corn. 



In the corn-belt states, when wheat is raised the 

 rotation is usually corn two years, oats, wheat, clo- 

 ver, except where spring wheat is grown, when it 

 is often used to alternate with corn ; thus, — corn, 

 spring wheat, using no other crop in the rotation. 

 This is not an ideal system, but experience has 

 shown that it is better than raising corn continu- 

 ously. This method is also being followed at present 

 with winter wheat by drilling the wheat between 

 the corn rows with a one-horse drill. The corn- 

 stalks are pastured in winter, so that the wheat 

 can be harvested the following summer. 



In the semi-arid region the tendency is to rotate 

 wheat with a summer-fallow, using the latter every 

 two to four years. It is probable that this will be 

 replaced in time by a rotation including a peren- 

 nial grass or legume left on the land for several 

 years, and alternating wheat with other small 

 grains suited to the region as well as the summer- 

 fallow. 



On the irrigated lands, sugar-beets or potatoes 

 are usually the cultivated crops. These follow 

 alfalfa, which has been down for at least three or 

 four years. Wheat follows the cultivated crop. A 

 typical rotation is alfalfa (three or more years), 

 sugar-beets, wheat. Where peas are raised for 

 sheep, as is becoming common in Colorado, a good 

 rotation is peas, potatoes, wheat. 



Seed and seeding. 



The great importance of securing good seed 

 is evident. While efforts should not be neglected 

 to improve the character of well-known varieties 

 and to create new ones of superior merit, it must 

 not be forgotten that the maximum of production 

 from the varieties now in common use has by no 

 means been reached. Much remains to be learned 

 of the adaptability of existing wheats and the best 

 methods of cultivating and handling the crop. 



The wheat-grower cannot be too painstaking in 

 ths selection of his seed wheat. By employing the 



