DRY FARMING CONGRESS. 



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of years fall wheats have always given us better results than spring wheats, 

 because fall wheats are able to grow and are able to benefit fully by 

 all of the moisture which falls during the fall, winter and early spring, 

 and are capable, also, of taking advantage of the early spring sun, which 

 means much to the better development of those plants. We have found 

 that sowing with a press drill has always given us better results than 

 sowing- broadcast because by sowing with a press drill our seed is put into 

 the soil at a very uniform depth and is scattered evenly over the soil. 

 And, also, the press wheel has a tendency to pack the soil around each 

 kernel of wheat, which has a tendency to cause the moisture to rise into 

 that particular portion of the soil and thus cause the wheat to sprout or 

 germinate more quickly than it otherwise would do. We have found that 

 on an average of a number of years deep seeding has given us better re- 

 sults than shallow seeding, because in the deep seeding the seeds are 

 always put below the dry soil mulch, where they can get the moisture 

 necessary for their rapid germination. On an average, too, we have found 

 that October seeding has given us better results than even later seeding 

 or earlier seeding. . In order to be fully successful with winter wheat it 

 is necessary that the wheat come up in the fall. If the wheat does not 

 come up in the fall the chances are against its fully succeeding. Of 

 course there are many cases where it is successful even if it does not come 

 up in the fall. If the seed is planted so late in the fall that it does not 

 come up in the fall we are not going to get a full crop. If the seed is 

 planted so early in the fall and there is moisture enough in the soil only 

 to sprout that seed and then not enough to keep it going, then chances 

 again are against our succeeding. But if there is moisture enough in the 

 soil to not only sprout the wheat but to keep it growing until the late 

 fall rains come, then our early fall seeding is going to be better than our 

 late fall seeding. We have demonstrated that on the experimental farm. 

 The farm has been running there now for four years, and for three years 

 we have found that the October seeding has given us better results than 

 has either later or earlier seeding. This last year — the one which has 

 just passed — we found that the plat seeded on August 15th gave us better 

 results than that we seeded later than that, for the reason that just after 

 that crop was planted we had one heavy rain storm, which caused moisture 

 to sink into the soil so that there was enough not only to sprout the seed 

 enough to sink into the soil so that there was enough not only to sprout the 

 the other by spring and kept ahead until it was ripened, so that it yielded 

 on an average from 10 to 15 bushels per acre more than that seeded later. 

 We can't always depend upon that — upon the rain storms just after we 

 have seeded. So that on an average, I say, of a number of years, I be- 

 lieve the arid farmers are more safe in planting their seed either the latter 

 part of September or in October. 



Now, I just want to read you a short paragraph from an article on 

 Durum wheats. The Durum wheats, as we understand, are hard wheats. 

 They are wheats that are planted in the spring. Not that I want to ad- 



