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DRY FARMING CONGRESS. 



cerning- many of the vital problems of Dry Land Agriculture. It is 

 believed, however, that the results already obtained at North Platte will 

 prove of value to the farmers of Nebraska, if in no other way than by 

 pointing out to them how little is really known about some of the simplest 

 problems of farm practice; how difficult it is to obtain definite and 

 reliable information and how dangerous it is to draw hasty conclusions 

 from a too limited experience. 



:\IR. ELDRIDGE, of Utah: I wish to ask whether the period of 

 planting was at the same time in the season wi,th the spring plowed 

 and summer tilled. 



PROF. CHILCOTT: The planting was on the same day. 



MR. ELDRIDGE: At what season did you plant? 



PROF. CHILCOTT: I could not give you the exact date of the plant- 

 ing there, but I should say in the early part of April. It was a Durham 

 wheat that was planted there, and it was during the first weeks of April, 

 I think. It was at the season when it seemed to be the best time to sow. 

 It came off cold and dry along in May, however, and it suffered some- 

 what from the cold weather after it had come up. That was one point 

 brought out in that connection, that these summer tilled plats, where 

 the conditions for germination were most favorable, grew faster in the 

 early part of the season, and therefore when the frost came on in May 

 they suffered more than the other plats. That probably is one reason 

 why we did not get a greater yield. It possibly may account for the 

 difference between these two plats. But very often we find that if we 

 have adverse conditions during the growing season those plats that are 

 in the best condition and therefore produce the most strength and best 

 growth early in the season suffer the most. Sometimes the very things 

 from which we think we can reasonably expect good results turn around 

 and work ^'ust in the opposite direction. What we want to do is to carry 

 on these investigations long enough so we can find, in a given locality, 

 what practice will result in the best way on an average through a long 

 term of years. 



A DELEGATE: I would like to ask what is the character of the 

 soils on these plats? 



MR. CI-IILCOTT: It is a very fine soil. It is supposed they are made 

 by the combined action of sun and water — a very fine soil. It is what 

 you would call a fine sandy loam, although more loam than sand, a very 

 tillable soil — a soil that is an excellent corn soil, a fair wheat soil, such 

 as I presume many in the audience are familiar with in Kansas and 

 Nebraska. 



MR. BECK, of Utah: I would like to ask how that summer tilling 

 was done? 



MR. CHILCOTT: I haven't the figures at hand and I can't give you 

 the time that each plat was tilled, but in a general way the summer 

 tillage was as follows: In the year, we will say 1905, the fall of the year 

 of 1905, the summer tilled plats were plowed and packed and thoroughly 

 put in thorough good tilt in the fall. The next spring they were double 



