SPRING WHEAT IN THE GREAT PLAINS AREA. 23 
11 were corn ground and 1 was potato ground. Spring plowing has 
been productive of an average profit of S3. 50 and fall plowing of 
$2.82. Despite the increased yield on summer tillage, the high cost 
of the method has reduced the profits from it to $2.78 per acre. The 
still higher cost of preparation and the lower yields from green 
manuring have contributed to make it show a loss of $4.39 per acre. 
BELLE FOURCHE FIELD STATION. 
The field-station farm near Newell, S. Dak., on the Belle Fourche 
Reclamation Project, is located on a heavy gumbo clay soil, which 
is derived from the decomposition of Pierre shale. From the soil at 
the surface there is a rapid change to broken but undecomposed 
shale. Near the bottom of the second foot is a comparatively im- 
pervious layer of soil. The first foot and at least a part of the 
second foot carry a large proportion of available water. It is prob- 
able that little use is made of either water or soil below the first 2 
feet. In spite of the heavy soil and the large quantity of water 
that can be obtained by the plant from that portion of it near the 
surface, the shallowness of feeding reduces the quantity of water 
that can be carried in the soil to about one-half of that available on 
deeper soils. The result of tins is shown in the yields. 
While the results of six years are available from this station, two 
of them have been years of total failure of the wheat crop. These 
failures were due to drought so extreme that no methods of culture 
were able to overcome it. A third year produced some light yields, 
but the crop was practically a failure for all methods. These three 
dry years in succession afforded no opportunity to profit from 
methods calculated to store moisture. The rainfall was so light and 
its distribution so unfavorable as to make the accumulation of 
water in the soil impossible. In two other years there was production 
from all methods, but the yields were light. In only the first year of 
the series under consideration was the general production heavy. 
Neither in the average of the series nor in any of the years within 
the series has there been evidenced sufficient difference in production 
to warrant an extended discussion of the relative merits of the 
methods under trial. The only partial exception to this statement 
is to be found in the advantage of summer tillage over other methods 
in resisting the dry seasons of 1913 and 1914. However, in 1913 it 
was able to produce only 15.6 bushels per acre, as against an average 
of 8.7 bushels on fall-plowed land that had been in crop the year 
before. In 1914 it produced an average of 16.1 bushels per acre, 
while the production on disked corn land was 10 bushels and on fall- 
plowed ground only 5.8 bushels per acre. In 1912 all the available 
water in the soil was used, but in no case was it sufficient to make a 
crop. 
