AO BULLETIN. 1421, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
Good seed.—Crop yields are frequently affected materially by the 
quality of the seed planted. Especially is this true with certain crops 
like potatoes and beans where the seed may carry diseases over from 
one crop to the next. ‘The significance of this point is illustrated well 
by a record of a tenant farm obtained in this study. Eight acres of 
potatoes were grown. Under the agreement the tenant and landlord 
each were to furnish one-half the seed and receive one-half the crop. 
The tenant received the crop produced on 4 acres planted with the 
seed he furnished and the landlord, the crop from the other 4 acres 
planted with his seed. The tenant’s total crop was 300 hundred- 
weight. Of this amount two-thirds rotted because of its diseased 
condition and one-third was sold at 80 cents per hundredweight. 
The landlord’s total crop was 600 hundredweight, all of which sold at 
$1 per hundredweight. Hence, it is evident that the use of poor seed 
may reduce the yield, the price received per unit, and the percentage 
of the crop that is marketable. 
Well-timed performance of cultural operations.—Like men in all other 
lines of business, some farmers are good managers and others are not. 
Some are able to look ahead, plan their work, and then perform the 
various operations at or near the optimum time, that is, when each 
operation will accomplish approximately the maximum good. The 
results are fields that are reasonably free from weeds, thrifty growing 
crops, and high yields produced at low costs. Other farmers, on the 
other hand, are a day, a week, or two weeks behind with their work. 
The consequences are hampered crops and diminished yields pro- 
duced at high costs. There is a best time, each season, for performing 
each cultural operation and a best way or method, and the farm 
operator—consciously or unconsciously—must decide both as to the 
time and the method. 
The importance of the well-timed performance of the cultural 
operations is strikingly shown by the results of two Nebraska experi- 
ments conducted to show the effect of delaying the dates of planting 
and thinning sugar beets grown under urigation: 
An average of three-years’ tests shows that 20 days of delayed thinning re- 
duced the yield more than five tons per acre. . . . Where the beets were planted 
four weeks after the land was prepared the yield was 3.73 tons per acre less than 
where the planting was made the next day after the land was prepared.! 
In summarizing it may be said that this discussion indicates 
something of the complexity of the problem of making the best use 
of the factors which make for high crop yield and which are largely 
under the farmer’s control. Farm experience of the past 20 years 
leads unerringly to the conclusion that the rotation of crops, the 
application of barnyard manure, the growing of legumes (alfalfa, the 
clovers, and beans) in the rotation, the use of good seed, and the well- 
timed performance of the cultural operations are all important 
factors in the district studied. Because of the absence of experi- 
mental data that apply specifically to this district, the results of the 
Nebraska experiment are presented to assist the farm operator in 
properly evaluating these factors. 
1 HOLDEN, J. A. WORK OF THE SCOTTSBLUFF EXPERIMENT FARM, NEBBR., IN 1920 AND 1921. U.S. Dept. 
Agr. Cir, 289, pp. 14. 1924. 
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