60 BULLETIN 1287, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
would result if the roughage were supplemented with corn or sorgo 
silage. Grinding the barley and shelling the corn before feeding are 
advisable. 
The need for diversified farming in this district is urgent. The 
one-crop system can not prove successful where the farmer must con- 
tend with so many risks. Although grain production is likely to re- 
main the leading industry, the growing of winter wheat to the exclu- 
sion of all the other cereals is a questionable practice. Few sections 
in the United States which follow wheat farming alone are perma- 
nently prosperous. Certain individuals may escape the failures and 
accumulate considerable property, but the average person who 
follows exclusive wheat farming has not found himself greatly 
enriched by it in the long run. 
In the district surrounding the Akron Field Station winter wheat is 
the cash crop of prime importance. Spring wheat may serve as a 
catch crop in years when winter wheat fails to survive. Barley is a 
very valuable grain feed crop, especially when ground. Corn is 
also an important feed crop which with careful attention generally 
yields about the same as barley. It has the added advantage, how- 
ever, of making excellent silage. The sorgos are excellent forage 
crops in this section and often yield from 2 to 3 tons to the acre. 
They are also suitable for silage. Rye is a very good late-fall and 
early-spring pasture crop when sown early in the fall. When cut 
just before maturity it makes reasonably good hay. It is also a 
good cash crop in the more sandy sections where the growing of 
winter wheat is not advisable. Oats when sown early in the spring 
usually make a fair yield of grain. In seasons of severe drought the 
oats can be mowed and will make excellent hay. Proso and millet 
are of doubtful value for seed crops, but millet often makes an ex- 
cellent yield of forage of good quality. There is great need for a 
legume which will consistently produce good yields of forage and 
pasturage under dry-land conditions. 
The farmer of this section has a considerable range of crops from 
which to select and few years will occur when all of them produce 
poor yields. The experience of the most successful farmers has shown 
that a system of farming which includes the growing of a considerable 
acreage of winter wheat as a cash crop, possibly an equal acreage of 
the other cereals, and sufficient forage for the feeding of work stock 
and a few good dairy cows is the most profitable type to recommend 
for this part of the Great Plains. Grain production should be com- 
bined with livestock farming, especially dairying and the raising of 
poultry and a few hogs. 
SUMMARY 
Experiments with cereals have been conducted on dry land at the 
Akron field station, Akron, Colo., during the 15 years from 1908 to 
1922, inclusive. 
The station is located in northeastern Colorado, about 60 mules 
from the Nebraska line on the east and on the north. The results 
obtained there are generally applicable to eastern Colorado, north- 
western Kansas, western Nebraska, and southeastern Wyoming. 
The section is primarily devoted to grain production. The most 
important grain crops are winter wheat, corn, spring wheat, barley, 
