FARM MANAGEMENT IN CLINTON COUNTY, INDIANA. 17 
The agreeableness of the work of seeding oats, as above described, 
in the spring before hot weather, as compared with that of seeding 
wheat between the corn rows in hot weather, was also a factor in 
favor of oats. 
The comparative conditions in which the land was left, for the 
clover and timothy following, was also in favor of oats. 
These are some of the considerations which were taken into account 
by the farmers in choosing between oats and wheat. 
"Wheat was the crop with greatest yearly variations, not only in 
acreage, but in yield per acre, and in number of farms growing the 
crop. The yearly variation in acreage was from 22 to 189 per cent 
of the 8-year average; in yields per acre from 33 to 150 per cent; 
and in number of farms growing the crop from 32 to 160 per cent. 
In 1916, when the wheat crop failed on many farms, mainly on 
account of winter killing, considerable acreages which had been sown 
to wheat were sown to oats, or planted to corn, thereby making the 
acreage in oats in 1916 the largest, and that in corn one of the largest, 
of any of the years included in this study. The yield of wheat which 
was harvested this year was only 6 bushels per acre. After such 
experiences, wheat was sown on only 12 farms for the 1917 harvest. 
Following a yield of 15 bushels per acre in 1917, wheat was sown on 
35 farms for the 1918 harvest, when the yield per acre was 27 bushels — 
the highest of any of the 8 years. For the 1919 harvest, wheat was 
sown on 61 farms — about the same number of farms, the same 
acreage, and with the same yield per acre as in 1910. 
Along with an increase of 5 acres per farm in total area, increases 
of 6 acres of corn and 4 acres of oats, and a decrease of 5 acres of 
wheat — partly offset by 1 acre of rye — are shown by comparisons of 
the averages of the two 4-year periods. Whether these changes are 
for short-time periods, or whether they indicate long-time trends, 
is speculative, even though the data for 1919 indicate a return to the 
1910 acreage for every crop except corn. 
Following the reverses with wheat, a number of farmers grew rye, 
which until 1916 had been grown on but few farms, on account of 
its relatively low value. In 1916, the per-acre value of rye was two 
and a half times that of wheat, and one and a half that of oats. 
In 1917, the per-acre value of rye about equaled that of wheat. In 
1918, when the largest acreage was seeded to it, rye was grown on 
26 farms, and it occupied about half as much of the land as wheat; 
but the yield was only 19 bushels per acre as against 27 bushels for 
wheat, and the per-acre value was only half that of wheat. The 
number of farms on which rye was grown in 1919 dropped to 21, 
and the land in rye was about one-seventh that in wheat. The 
per-acre value of rye production over the 8-year period was less than 
that of wheat, but rye gave a more nearly uniform yearly yield per 
acre, varying from an average of 14 bushels to an average of 20 
bushels per acre. 
From 15 to 35 per cent of the land area of most of the farms was 
in clover and timothy, the complement of corn and small grains in 
the 3-crop rotation (see Table 12). Aside from the rotation and fer- 
tility standpoints, the varied uses of the clover crop — for pasture, 
hay, and seed — made it desirable for this area. 
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