6 BULLETIN 1094, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
Taste 4.—Average yields of winter wheat in Ellis, Russeli, Rush, Rooks, and Trego 
Counties, Kans., for each decade or partial decade of the 47-year period from 1874 to 
1920, inclusive. 
Average yields per acre (bushels). 
Decade. ee 
Elis. Russell. | Rush. Rooks. | Trego. | Average. 
1874-t0418802-22. Se SS Bee eins 14.3 14.8 12.8 1455+|sioc5e es “’4i 
LSSIC COR SS0 seer ra ase See Se tS S| 15.8 14.9 14.0 525 11.6 14.4 
TSO LSE OM QOO EC SERRE oe sete es wee RE 9.5 10.7 7.6 10. 1 10.1 9.6 
1901 to 1910...... RSS ERIN ES RISO 9.3 12.6 9.4 12.5 &.4 10. 4 
HOM OIG 20S Pe see = Eee ee 10. 1 11.3 9.9 12.3 10.2 10.8 
In considering acreage it was noted that the year 1891 marked the 
time when stability was reached in the proportion of wheat to 
all crops. If the previous period be eliminated and the study of 
yields is begun with that year, the curve is very different from the one 
obtained when it is included. In the nineties yields were high, low, 
and again high. The 10-year average of Ellis County for 1891 to 
1900, inclusive, was 9.5 bushels per acre. The succeeding averages 
obtained by including the data of each succeeding year in a new 
average until a 30-year average is obtained in 1920, do not depart 
from this by more than 0.5 bushel in either direction. The 24-year 
and 25-year averages were exactly the same as the 10-year average; 
the 29-year average was 0.1 bushel lower, and the 30-year average 
0.1 bushel higher. The average of the five counties parallels that of 
Ellis very closely. 
It is impossible to recognize any progressive change in yields 
during this period of 30 years. 
In the early years a lesser area of land was under cultivation, as 
well as a smaller proportion of it in wheat. The smaller acreage 
perhaps contributed to more timely work. Undoubtedly the best 
land as a rule was brought under cultivation first. During the devel- 
opment period a considerable proportion of the wheat would be 
seeded on newly broken prairie sod or on land only a few years from 
sod. Such land is free from the weeds and diseases that follow a 
crop after its introduction into a new country. 
With the passage from first development to a stabilized condition 
on old soil there was a marked drop in yields. The term ‘old soil is 
intended to express only a relative condition as distinguished from 
new land which still enjoys the physical effect of the prairie sod and 
its relative freedom from the weeds and diseases that accompany 
cropping. The evidence of a number of dry-land experimental 
farms seems to show this change occurring in from four to seven 
years on individual fields and farms. 
Since the drop that marked the passage to a stabilized condition 
there has been no measurable change in yields. If the system in 
itself has resulted in any decrease of yields, such decrease has been 
