DRY FARMING CONGRESS. 



73 



parative results of only two plats or fields, and in some instances upon 

 the yields of only a single field with nothing to compare these yields with 

 except the average yields of the county or state, with no attention being 

 paid in either case to the many other factors involved, such as character, 

 past history and uniformity of soil, I think the significance of the facts 

 to which I am about to call your attention will become apparent. It is 

 perhaps unnecessary to state that upon all of these wheat plats the same 

 variety of grain and the same rate of seeding was used, and that every 

 precaution was taken to eliminate all factors that might influence the 

 results, except the two factors of crop sequence and tillage. 



In the first part of the accompanying table we have arranged the 19 

 plats in four groups, representing spring plowing, fall plowing, disced corn 

 land, and summer tilled land. In this grouping it will be noticed that we 

 have disregarded the factor of crop sequence entirely and have based our 

 groupings entirely upon the difference in methods of tillage. In the sum- 

 mary we have arranged the same 19 plats in nine groups, basing our sub- 

 divisions upon both the method tillage and crop sequence, or the kind of 

 crop that had been grown on the plat during the previous season. 



It will be noticed that the four spring plowed plats gave an average 

 yield of 23.1 bushels per acre; the six fall plowed plats gave an average 

 yield of 24.3 bushels per acre; the seven plats upon disced corn land gave 

 an average yield of 24.8 bushels per acre; and the two summer tilled plats 

 gave an average yield of 28.9 bushels per acre, thus showing that the sum- 

 mer tilled plats yielded 5.8 bushels per acre more than spring plowed plats, 

 4.6 bushels per acre more than the fall plowed plats, and 4.1 bushels per 

 acre more than the disced corn land plats. This comparison shows 

 a decided advantage of the summer tilled plats over any of the others, but 

 in no instance does the average yield from the summer tilled plats exceed 

 that from the others sufficiently to warrant the extra expense and loss of 

 the use of the land for a whole season which is involved in the practice of 

 summer tillage. 



I wish to say right here in that connection that summer tillage, or 

 summer fallowing, as it is sometimes called, is undoubtedly of greater 

 advantage on the west side of the Rockies than it is on the eastern side. 

 I base this supposition upon the reports I get from men who are thor- 

 oughly familiar with the principles of alternate cropping on the west side 

 of the Rocky Mountains. But it does nof follow that because it is a 

 successful practice here it is a successful practice on the east side, and, as 

 a matter of fact, at none of the stations during the past season did we get 

 a sufficient increase of any crop to warrant us in the practice of summer 

 tillage, with one exception, at Edgley, North Dakota, we got a yield of 125 

 bushels of oats per acre from a summer tilled plat, whereas we only got 

 about half that much from fall plowed land. But that is the only instance 

 last season where we got a sufficient increase to warrant the expense of 

 this practice. I don't say that will follow for another season. I just 

 simply throw that out to show you that we cannot get any system that is 

 going to fit all conditions. 



