NORTHERN GREAT PLAINS FIELD STATION, 1913-1922 65 
SOIL-MOISTURE INVESTIGATIONS 
Limitation of the available water supply being the chief factor in 
the control of yields in this section, soil-moisture investigations have 
been an integral and important part of the work throughout. These 
investigations have been for the purpose of determining the effects 
of cropping and cultural practices on the storage and retention of 
water in the soil, to determine to what extent differences in yields 
from different cultural practices were due to differences in the water 
supply afforded by them, and to learn the fundamental principles of 
water storage and use in dry farming. This work is correlated with 
similar work at the other field stations of the Office of Dry-Land 
Agriculture Investigations. 
A total of about 9,000 determinations of soil moisture has been 
made in connection with the agronomic work of the station. The 
results will not be discussed in this report. 
INVESTIGATIONS WITH FLAX AND CEREALS ! 
The flax and cereal investigations at the Northern Great Plains Field 
Station consist of varietal and cultural experiments, including stud- 
ies of dates and rates of seeding and the breeding and selection of 
superior ‘varieties. This work is conducted cooperatively by the 
Office of Cereal Investigations and the Office of Dry-Land Agricul- 
ture Investigations. Experiments with flax were begun in 1914, 
and experiments with wheat, oats, and barley were added in 1916. 
EXPERIMENTS WITH FLAX 
The seed-flax crop of the United States is grown in about the same 
area as hard red spring wheat, including North Dakota, Minnesota, 
northeastern South Dakota, and northeastern Montana. This sta- 
tion is in the west-central part of this area, and the results of inves- 
tigations with flax are believed to be applicable over a large part of 
the flaxseed-producing area. 
FLAX ON BREAKING 
Flax is still grown to a large extent as the first crop on newly 
broken sod lands. On sod, flax does better than most other farm 
crops. The experimental flax plats at the station were on breaking 
for three consecutive years, 1914, 1915, and 1916. The results of 
these experiments were published in 1920.” 
These experiments were conducted under unusually favorable con- 
ditions of soil and rainfall, and the yields obtained were nearer the 
optimum to be expected than the average. 
The land used for the experiments in 1914, 1915, and 1916 was 
broken and backset the previous year in each case. This treatment 
provided almost ideal conditions for flax, as the soil was free from 
weeds, moisture was stored, and the sod was partly rotted so that a 
good seed bed could be prepared. 
Two types of flax are grown commonly for seed production: (1) 
The European seed-flax type, having blue flowers, large branched 
stems, and large brown seeds; and (2) the short-fiber type, having 
11 By J C. Brinsmade, jr., Assistant Agronomist, Office of Cereal Investigations. 
12 Clark, Charles H. Experiments with flax on breaking. U.S. Dept. Agr .Bul. 883, 29 p., 3 fig. 1920. 
roe nr 
