THE AGRICULTURAL FUTURE OF THE REGION. 



27 



if the summer tillage is conducted through a season of considerable 

 rainfall followed by a dry season, it may be altogether possible to 

 produce a profitable crop. When a dry season is followed by a dry 

 season, the prospects for success seem small indeed. 



In all the region under discussion, even in the eastern part, seasons 

 of much less than 16 inches of rainfall are likely to occur. Where 

 the average is only 15 or 16 inches, fully half the seasons will have 

 less than this amount, and presumably, even with the best known 

 methods for the conservation of moisture, many light crops and a 

 considerable number of failures must be expected. 



Statements have frequently been published by uninformed or un- 

 scrupulous persons which leave the impression, if they do not actu- 



FiG. 2.— A field of wheat on summer-tilled land, Phillips County, Colo., 1909. 



ally say, that 40 to 60 bushels of wheat per acre can be produced 

 every other year by summer tillage wherever the average precipita- 

 tion is 10 inches. Such statements must be considered as purely 

 visionary and without any foundation in fact.^ So far as the writer 

 is aware, the best yields of wheat obtained on summer-tilled land 

 anywhere in the Great Plains region for a period of years have been 

 secured by one farmer in Logan County, Colo., and one in Phillips 

 County, Colo. '(See fig. 2.) The first reports an average of 28 bushels 

 to the acre for five years and the second 35^ bushels to the acre for 



1 In the State of Washington, where the conditions are especially favorable for wheat growing, and where 

 summer tillage has reached a high development, the yield of wheat in those regions where there is an annual 

 precipitation of 10 to 12 inches seldom exceeds 20 bushels to the acre. The yields usually obtained with 

 that amount of rainfall will run from 7 to 15 bushels, depending on conditions. 

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