140 



THIRD ANNUAL SESSIONS 



portance of individual experience. On the contrary, we realize that it is 

 from such cumulative experiences alone that we can hope for a solution 

 of these complex problems. It is upon just such individual experience 

 that we depend to guide us in arriving at correct conclusions regarding 

 the effect of various agricultural practices in Dry Land Agriculture. 



Government Co-Operation. 



"Qur organization within the Department of Agriculture and our co- 

 operation with the various State Experiment Stations enable us to bring 

 to bear upon these problems a large corps of specialists trained along 

 the lines of agronomy, physics, meteorology, bacteriology, chemistry and 

 plant physiology, who carry on thoroughly co-ordinated observations and 

 experiments at many points, distributed over a large area, and without 

 interruption from year to year. Owing to this plan of organization, 

 which gives us the benefit of not only the knowledge possessed by the 

 specialists within this Department, but also of those connected with the 



Experiment Stations. 



several co-operating State Experiment Stations, we have already 

 amassed data conceming methods and results of dry land farming far 

 exceeding that in the possession of any other individual or organization. 



Acreage Yields. 



"For instance, the diagrams which I am about to exhibit, while they 

 represent but a very small fraction of the results obtained in our inves- 

 tigations, show the yields obtained from one hundred and ninety-four 

 plats of oats, grown as follows: 



"Oats on fall plowed land after wheat, 33; spring plowed land, after 

 wheat, 16; fall plowed land, after oats, 10; spring plowed land, after 

 oats, 10; fall plowed land, after barley, 11; fall plowed land, after flax, 

 5; spring plowed land, after corn, 22; disced land, after corn, 34; after 

 I;eas, plowed under for green manure, 11; after rye, plowed under for 

 green manure, 10; after sweet clover, plowed under, 6; after fallow or 

 summer tilled land, 26; total, 194. 



"One hundred and sixty-four plats grown as follows: 



"Wheat on fall plowed land, after wheat, 10; spring plowed land, 

 after wheat, 10. fall plowed land, after oats, 21; spring plowed land, 

 after oats, 10; fall plowed land, after corn, 12; Spring plowed land, after 

 corn, 10; disced land, after corn, 51; after peas, plowed under for green 

 manure, 7; after rye, plowed under for green manure, 7; after sweet 

 clover, plowed under, 6; after fallow or summer tilled land, 20; total, 164. 



Experinwnt Stations. 



"As these crops were grown at six different stations, as will be 

 shown on diagrams, they represent results on six distinct soil typds. And 

 as three years' results were obtained at one and two years' results at 

 each of two other of these six stations, they represent ten distinct sets 

 of meteorological conditions; and further, as very full meteorological 

 observations were taken and the resulting physical conditions of the soil 



