COST OF PRODUCING WINTER WHEAT IN OREGON 
31 
The total increase in yield for early over late plowing in nine years 
was 56.7 bushels per acre, or the equivalent of two and one-half 
years of crop on late plowing. 
The yield of winter wheat after early spring plowing exceeded the 
yield obtained after 
fall plowing. 
Late spring plowing 
for fallow produced 
low yields and soft 
wheat. 
The nine-year aver- 
age yield of 10-inch 
over 5-inch plowing at 
Moro was only 0.9 
bushel of wheat per 
acre. 
Moldboard plowing 
in the fall gave slightly 
higher yields of winter 
wheat than disk plow- 
ing in the fall. 
The use of the sub- 
surface packer at 
Moro did not increase 
wheat yields . The sur- 
face packer gave only 
slightly increased 
yields. 
E arly sowing of win- 
ter wheat at the rate 
of 5 pecks of treated 
seed per acre gave the 
highest yields. 
Harrowing winter wheat in the spring generally reduced yields. 
The nine-year average yield of winter wheat at Moro was reduced 
1 bushel per acre by spring harrowing. In three of these years an 
increased yield was obtained from the harrowed grain and in the 
other six years a decreased yield. 
SUMMARY OF LABOR PRACTICES IN WHEAT PRODUCTION 
The prevailing farm practice in Sherman County is to leave the 
land in fallow one year and follow with a crop of grain the succeeding 
year. In the case of winter wheat the land is broken as early in the 
spring as practicable, and kept in a state of clean cultivation until 
seeding time in the fall. The tillage operations on summer fallow 
and in the preparation of a suitable seed bed were fairly uniform. 
The chief implements used were the plow, disk harrow, weeder, and 
spike-tooth harrow. Table 27 shows by operations for all farms the 
relative use of horse and tractor motive power in 1920 and the rela- 
tive hours per acre required by each class of power. 
The use of the tractor was most general for plowing, disking, and 
harvesting with the combine. Thirty per cent of the total acreage 
was tractor plowed, 18 per cent tractor disked, 13 per cent tractor 
drilled. Harvesting with the combine was the most common prac- 
Fig. 12. — A good stand of winter wheat. In a region like Sherman 
County where over 88 per cent of the receipts are from wheat the 
profits from farming depend to a large extent on the yield of wheat 
obtained 
