CEREALS AT THE AKRON FIELD STATION is | 
many occasions no specific record exists of frost having occurred with 
that temperature. The latest sprig frost was recorded on June 4, 
1919, and the earliest autumn frost was observed September 13, 1914. 
The average frost-free period was 140 days, but this has varied from 
121 days in 1916 to 165 days in 1918. The frost-free period is long 
enough to permit full maturity of all adapted cereal varieties at the 
station. 
TaBLE 4.—Dates of the last killing frost in spring and the first in autumn at the 
Akron Field Station for each year, 1908-1922, inclusive 
| | 
| 
Killing frosts Killing frosts 
(32° FF.) Frost- | (32° F.) Frost- 
: free | Fike free 
Year | period | Year period 
| Lastin | Firstin | (days) | Last in | First in | (days) 
spring fall | spring fall 
LOOSE RS rece er oS May 7 | Sept. 25 TATA VOU ee ese seed May 11] Oct. 8 150 
TCCTG oa ee cee ee | May 16] Oct. 31 TAO GIR oo. Rae Ma alee be Xo Ko pee Oct. 23 165 
EO) OMe ee a ree | May 162} Sept. 25 SPAN AT KU NO) So Santee nea June 4] Oct. 4 122 
AUR co oe etal 5 tg oe | May 10] Oct. 71 PSO a 1920 Meee es Ere May 15 | Sept. 29 137 
TOG) 2 ge I ese ee | May 13 | Sept. 20 SOs MLO DIE ss ata May 7| Oct. 1 147 
ICIS} 5 ane eee eee | May 3 | Sept. 19 398 | MO22 21 esate Se ieee Apr. 28 | Oct. 7 162 
GAP aE st eer A | May 12 | Sept. 13 124 | SE 
TS Ua) ol aly op acer 5 | May 20] Oct. 4 137 | Average______-_ May 13 | Sept. 30 140 
NOT GRR see ee | May 16 | Sept. 14 Tile) 
1 First frost occurred after this date, when record ended. 
2 Temperature of 32° F. recorded June 9, but probably no frost. 
CROPS OF THE DISTRICT 
The station represents in a general way that portion of the western 
United States lying between 101° and 105° longitude and 38° and 
43° latitude. This district is high in altitude, ranging from about 
3,500 to 5,500 feet. The rainfall is low, varying with the locality 
and season from about 10 to 25 inches. As most of the precipitation 
falls during the growing season and the frost-free period is halwesn 
four and five months in length, the district is well adapted to the 
production of grain crops. Although some land is farmed by iri- 
gation, possibly over 90 per cent of the entire cropped area is dry 
farmed. Figure 5 shows the general outline of the district. 
Winter wheat is the most important grain crop, perhaps equaling 
in importance all others combined. Nearly 3,000,000 acres of 
winter wheat were grown in this district in 1921. The increase in 
acreage of hard red winter wheat has been remarkable. With the 
continued rapid increase in the acreage brought under cultivation, 
the area devoted to winter wheat in this district may continue to 
increase at the present rate of several hundred thousand acres annually 
for the next several years. Winter wheat yields well, generally 
averaging from 12 to 15 bushels, so that the annual production of 
the district probably is close to 40,000,000 bushels at present. Figure 
6 shows the distribution of the winter-wheat acreage. 
Next to winter wheat, corn is the most important crop. The 
production of corn in this district is for the most part to the east 
and north of the station. The total area in corn was between 1,500,- 
000 and 1,750,000 acres in 1921. Corn is by far the most popular 
of the feed-grain crops now grown. This is possibly because most 
of the farmers are from the Corn Belt and also because the crop fits 
well into a rotation with winter wheat. The corn varieties grown 
