COST OF PRODUCING WINTER WHEAT IN GREAT PLAINS. cba 
MATERIAL REQUIREMENTS. 
Seed.—Varieties of soft winter wheat such as Harvest nee and 
Fultz predominated in Missouri, while in all other districts hard win- 
ter wheat was-most in evidence. Of the hard winter wheat varieties, 
Turkey Red was the most common. | 
There seems to be a rather well defined relation between the aver- 
age annual rainfall and the quantity of seed sown per acre. An in- 
sufficient amount of moisture in the soil renders it incapable of sup- 
porting a heavy growth of wheat; as a result, less seed is used than 
where moisture is not a limiting factor. Rate of seeding ranged from 
an average of 0.74 of a bushel in Thomas County, Kans., a region of 
limited rainfall, to 1.3 bushels per acre in Pike County, Mo., a region 
Fic. 5.—Harvesting wheat with a header. Forty-seven per cent of the total winter wheat acreage 
included in the study was harvested with a header. Courtesy of Kansas State Board of Agriculture. 
of abundant rainfall. No appreciable amount of reseeding was neces- 
sary except in PawneeCounty, Kans., where 2.2 percent of the planted 
acreage was reseeded. ‘This reseeding was caused by a lack of mois- 
ture at planting time, which resulted in considerable soil blowing. 
(Table 8.) 
Binder twine.—The average binder-twine requirements were in- 
fluenced mainly by the quantity of straw per acre and varied from 
about 1.5 pounds per acre in Pike County, Mo., to 2.5 pounds in Gar- 
field County, Okla. The average requirement for all acreage cut 
with the binder was 2.24 pounds per acre. (Table 8.) 
Commercial fertilizer—Commercial fertilizer was not used on any 
farms visited except in Pike County, Mo., where 93 per cent of the 
men interviewed used commercial fertilizer covering 92 per cent of the 
entire wheat acreage. The quantity applied ranged from 100 to 200 
pounds with an average application of 151 pounds per acre. (See 
Table 8.) 
