8 BULLETIN 1306, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGEICULTUEE 
Both fall plowing and sf)ring plowing are seeded at the sametime. 
Seeding is done comparatively early in the season. With a large 
acreage to be handled, plowing in the spring necessarily delays 
seeding. It has been proved beyond any doubt, and it is generally 
recognized, that delay in seeding in this section decreases yields. 
Fall plowing, therefore, is advantageous to the extent that it allows 
the seeding of small grains to be done during the most suitable time 
in the spring. 
RESULTS OF EARLY AND LATE FALL PLOWING FOR WINTER WHEAT 
A comparison of the time of plowing for winter wheat is available 
from one pair of plats in the continuous-cropping series. One plat 
is plowed as soon as practicable after the grain is harvested and the 
other shortly before seeding. The time between harvest and the 
seeding of winter wheat in this section is very short, and consequently 
the difference in time of plowing is relatively small. The yields 
from the two methods for the six years from 1918 to 1923, inclusive, 
are shown in Table 5. The results show no advantage for the early 
plowing, the slight difference that appears being in favor of the later 
plowing. 
RESULTS WITH WHEAT AND OATS ON DISKED CORN GROUND AND PLOWED 
CORN GROUND 
With both spring wheat and oats a number of rotations afford 
comparisons between disking and plowing corn ground as a prepara- 
tion for the succeeding small-grain crop. All comparisons are oetween 
rotations similar in all respects except for the preparation of the 
ground. The results are shown in Table 6. It may be noted that 
with both wheat and oats plowing slightly outyielded disking in all 
years when a crop was made by either method except in 1923. The 
differences for the most part were small, however, and the average 
difference in favor of plowing was only 0.8 bushel with each crop for 
the 6-year period. Considering the fact that disking is much the 
cheaper and quicker preparation, it seems that seeding corn ground 
to smaU grains without plowing must be considered the better 
practice. 
Table 6. — Annual and average yields of spring wheat and oats on disked and on 
plowed corn ground at the Sheridan Field Station for the six years from 1918 to 
^, inclusive 
Crop 
Treatment 
Number 
of plats 
Yields per acre (bushels) 
1918 
1919 
1920 
1921 
1922 
1923 
Average 
Spring wheat 
Disked 
Plowed 
Disked 
Plowed 
2 
2 
1 
1 
23.5 
27.4 
56.7 
59.5 




24.3 
24.4 
50.0 
52.8 
2.1 
4.0 
6.6 
11.9 
29.2 
29.4 
43.4 
44.1 
21.3 
19.9 
52.2 
45.0 
16 7 
Do 
17 5 
Oats 
34.8 
Do 
35 6 
CORN GROUND COMPARED WITH SMALL-GRAIN STUBBLE FOR WHEAT, OATS, AND 
BARLEY 
Six 3-year rotations of wheat, oats, and corn are available for com- 
parisons of the yields of wheat and of oats f ollomng corn and following 
small grains. In four of them wheat follows corn and oats follows 
wheat, and in the other two rotations the order is reversed. With 
