UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
DEPARTMENT BULLETIN No. 1306 
Washington, D. C. ▼ January 5, 1925 
WORK OF THE SHERIDAN FIELD STATION FOR THE SEVEN YEARS 
FROM 1917 TO 1923. INCLUSIVE 
By R. S. TowLE, Associate Agronomist, Office of Dry-Land Agriculture Investi- 
gations, Bureau of Plant Industry 
CONTENTS 
Page [ Page 
Introduction 1 | Date-of-seeding tests 21 
Climate 2 , Experiments with forage crops 22 
Rotation and tillage experiments 4 '. Experiments with potatoes 27 
Varietal experiments 15 , Shelter-belt investigations 28 
Hate-of-seeding tests 20 Summary 29 
INTRODUCTION 
The Sheridan Field Station is one of a group of 24 stations at which 
the Office of Dry-Land Agriculture Investigations has studied the 
fossibilities and methods of crop production on the Great Plains, 
t is located 8 miles northeast of Sheridan, Wyo., about 10 miles 
south of the Montana- Wyoming State line, and about 15 miles east 
of the Big Horn Mountains. It was established in 1916, when 
buildings were erected and ground broken for crops. With the 
exception of a small field of sorgo grown for feed in 1916 the first 
crops were grown in 1917. Varietal, rate-of-seeding, and date-of- 
seeding tests were productive of results in 1917, but as the land was 
given uniform treatment in preparation for the crop that j^ear the 
experiments with crop rotations and tillage practices were not pro- 
ductive of results until 1918. 
The station occupies 160 acres of State school land leased by the 
Wyoming State Land Board to the United States Department of 
Agriculture for an experiment station and 3 acres purchased by the 
Wyoming Board of Farm Commissioners, in cooperation mth which 
board the station was started. The functions of the board have 
been transferred to the University of Wyoming, and the cooperation 
is now with the agricultural experiment station of that institution. 
The station is representative of a large area immediately east of 
the Big Horn Mountains. Numberless small streams and creeks 
drain this territory in a general northerly direction to the Yellow- 
stone River in Montana. Most of these streams have valleys of 
considerable width, with good farming land extending back to the 
6528— 25t 1 
