12 BULLETIN 222, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
In conformity with the foregoing explanation, Table IV gives in 
detail the cost of producing barley in the shock, expressed in dollars 
and cents and in bushels per acre at 41 cents per bushel in the. shock. 
RESULTS AT THE SEVERAL STATIONS. 
No attempt will be made in this bulletin to discuss the* various 
types of soils found at the several stations. 1 It will be noted in the 
tables that follow that the soils at some of the stations have given but 
little response to differences in tillage methods under any climatic 
conditions thus far obtaining. The soils at some other stations do 
respond to tillage. Differences in yields are obtained from different 
methods of tillage. The amount of variation in yields changes from 
year to year with the changing combination of climatic conditions. 
JUDITH BASIN FIELD STATION, MONT. 
The results of five years are presented from the field station at 
Moccasin, Mont., in the Judith Basin. The crop in the sixth year was 
destroyed by hail before maturity and is not used in calculating the 
averages. Four of the years have been productive of heavy yields, 
but in the other year the yields were light. 
Barley, like the other spring-sown grain crops at this station, does 
not exhibit marked differences in yield as a result of different prepara- 
tions for the crop. In 1913 both fall and spring plowed barley land 
show a marked drop in yields. In 1914 the same thing is noted on the 
spring-plowed barley plat. This was due to injury from gophers 
rather than to the difference in seed-bed preparation. This damage 
with the consequent shortage of yield, unduly augments the average 
differences. 
The uniformity of results obtained shows that the method of seed- 
bed preparation is not an important factor in the production of spring- 
sown crops at this place. The farmer should concern himself with the 
problem of getting the work done at the most convenient time and in 
the most economical manner. 
The lack of wide variation in yield is explained by the shallowness 
of the soil on the station farm. The water that falls either in rain or 
snow between the time of harvest of one crop and the commencement 
of rapid growth of the next, during the years under study, was suffi- 
cient to supply the proportion of water that the soil can retain within 
reach of the crop. Water accumulated in the soil by the special 
methods of cultivation in excess of this proportion was lost by pene- 
trating beyond recovery by the plant, and no increase in yield was 
realized from it. 
1 For a brief discussion of the different soil types, see TJ. S. Dept. of Agriculture Bui. 214, entitled 
" Spring wheat in the Great Plains area: Relation of cultural methods to production." 
