THE DRY FARMING CONGRESS. 



177 



Newcastle Results. 



"The department's farm in northeastern Wyoming is located about 

 five miles north and west of Newcastle, in Weston county. The soil is 

 a very heavy loam, and while probably not the best soil in the community, 

 it is fairly representative. A small creek passes along one side of the 

 farm which flows until the first of August. When the Department of 

 Agriculture took possession of this land it was entirely covered with sage 

 brush and cacti, and consequently was in its natural state. Part of the 

 land was cleared and plowed in the fall of 1906, while the remainder 

 was prepared during the spring and summer of 1907. Owing to several 

 causes very few crops were grown in 1907 and no definite results were 

 obtained. It was in 1908 that banner crops were grown which presented 

 as f ne an appearance in the field as any grain grown by methods of 

 either dry farming or irrigation. Some of the straw of the winter wheat 

 was over five feet tall and heads of Silver King wheat seven inches 

 long. It was a remarkable showing. Your secretary has made stereopticon 

 views of several of these fields at Newcastle and you will have the op- 

 portunity this evening to judge personally, from the illustrations, the 

 condition of this grown grain. The rainfall came at most opportune 

 t'imes to produce magnificent straw but at the end when the berries were 

 filling out the ground lacked moisture and the yi'eld was greatly de- 

 creased. Before this untimely drouth we had prospects of a yield of 40 or 

 50 bushels per acre. 



Wheat. 



"The Turkey Red wheat produced,, however, a little more than 22 

 bushels per acre, Red Cross wheat about 20 bushels, and Silver King 

 wheat 201/^ bushels per acre, beardless barley 22. 2-3 bushels. Durum 

 wheat 121/4 bushels and Defiance wheat 15 2-3 bushels per acre. On a 

 plot, cropped the previous year with wheat, beardless barley produced 

 11 2-3 bushels per acre. 



Alfalfa. 



"The Newcastle farm has not been established long enough for us 

 to draw any definite conclusions but the indications are that winter 

 wheat ought to do well in that part of the state. The alfalfa has not been 

 growing for a sufficient length of time to produce any crop for hay but 

 it is doing remarkably well and ought to yield considerable hay another 

 year. 



Summer Fallow. 



"At the Cheyenne farm we have undoubtedly shown that summer 

 fallowing is one of the necessary factors in successful dry farming, and 

 for this sort of agriculture the farmer must have more land for alternate 

 annual plantings than the farmer who produces his crop under con- 

 ditions of ample yearly moisture supply. In a practical way we discovered 

 and showed at the Cheyenne farm the benefits of summer fallowing. It 

 was while digging a trench for a pipe line in the spring of the year when 



