2 BULLETIN 1173, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
Despite its local importance, the total wheat crop produced in the 
far northwestern United States is not great when compared with the 
production in the Middle Western and North-Central States. Table 
1 shows the average annual production of wheat by 10-year periods 
since 1881 in the States of Idaho, Washington, Oregon, California, 
and Utah. The production of wheat in Nevada is unimportant. No 
statistics are available for Washington, Idaho, and Utah prior to 1882. 
Between 1869 and 1879, from 2,000,000 to 8,000,000 bushels of 
wheat were produced annually in Oregon. In California the annual” 
production of wheat between 1869 and 1879 ranged from 14,000,000 — 
to 40,000,000 bushels. The marked decrease in wheat production 
in California during the last two decades no doubt can be attributed 
largely to the fact that farmers have found barley more profitable in 
certain sections of that State where wheat at one time was practicall 
the only crop produced. On the dry lands in the eastern portions o 
Oregon and Washington the production of wheat has increased greatly 
during the last 20 years, although the increase in total production in 
Oregon has been comparatively slight because wheat has been 
largely replaced by other crops in the longer settled and more humid 
Willamette Valley. Nearly all of the wheat produced in Washington 
is grown in the eastern half of the State. 
TaBLE 1.—Average annual production of wheat in the States of Idaho, Washington, 
Oregon, California, and Utah by 10-year periods from 1881 to 1920. 
: Wheat production (bushels). 
Period. 2109 8 eS ae ee ee == 
Idaho. | Washington.| Oregon. California. Utah. 
| | arse = 
| 
ISSIR OW B90 3 eS ee oS ...| 21,093,000 | 26,332, 000 13, 555, 000 37, 651, 000 2 1,783, 000 
IROUtOMOON>.- So ee 4,326,000 | 16,115,000} 12,948,000 | 32,818,000 2,997,000 
LOO LRT OM ONO = eee eee ee 8,940,000 | 29, 150, 000 14, 996, 000 20, 079, 000 4, 826,000 
LOM COMO 20 Ce tee a. ea. oe Sees 16, 836, 090 | 42, 213, 000 18, 081, 000 | 2, 902, 000 6,106,000 — 
| } 
1 Annual figures of wheat production for 1881 are not available for Idaho, Washington, and Utah. 
2 Nine-year average, 1882 to 1890. 
Farm practice is usually the outgrowth of necessity. In the States — 
of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Utah climatic conditions are 
such that successful wheat production on dry lands is based on alter- 
nate years of crop and of clean fallow. In the development of the — 
summer-fallow system in these States, many different methods of 
cultivating the land have been advocated. Tillage methods prac- — 
ticed by farmers are many and diverse. ; 
In 1904 experiments to determine the effect of different tillage — 
methods on the yield of wheat were begun at Nephi, Utah, in the 
Great Basin area. These experiments have been conducted coopera- 
tively by the Utah Agricultural Experiment Station and the United 
States Department of Agriculture since 1908. Similar experiments 
were begun at Moro, Oreg., in the Columbia Basin, in 1911, and at | 
Lind, Wash., also in the Columbia Basin, in 1916, by the agricultural ~ 
experiment stations of these States in cooperation with the United 
— States Department of Agriculture. The. location of these stations | 
is shown in Figure 1. A wide range of crop experiments is conducted 
at these stations, but in this bulletin only the results of the tillage 
experiments and those on the rate, date, and depth of sowing wheat 
grown after fallow will be presented. Diagrams showing the platting — 
of the stations at Moro, Oreg., and Lind, Wash., are presented in 
Figures 2 and 3. ) 
