Colorado Agricultural Experiment Station 
BULLETIN 89. JUNE, 1904. 
Wheat Raising on the Plains. 
BY J. E. PAYNE. 
Eastern Colorado was settled mainly by people from Kansas 
and Nebraska. These people had raised wheat as a main crop in 
their former homes and as a matter of course began planting 
wheat when they came to the new country. The usual successes 
and failures followed. In 1892 an immense crop was raised, but 
1893, 1894 and 1895 were hard years for the wheat growers. The 
years following were not so bad as 1893 and 1894. Wheat plant¬ 
ing began in earnest in 1888. The average of wheat per acre 
reported by a number of representative farmers now living near 
Vernon and Idalia for the eleven years, 1888 to 1899, inclusive, is 
ten bushels per acre. This includes the years when the crop was 
an entire failure, on account of drouth, hail or insect enemies. 
In common with other new countries, this country seemed 
poorly adapted to the growth of fall wheat when it was first set¬ 
tled. Many tried fall wheat, and sowed it until they lost their 
seed and then quit. In 1900 there were only a few small fields of 
fall wheat in the country, but a series of comparatively damp au¬ 
tumns have encouraged the settlers to again sow fall wheat, until 
in 1903 fields of fall wheat were seen to be quite common. 
Those who grow fall wheat claim to get one to two bushels more 
per acre from it than they get from spring wheat, and the buyers 
pay five cents per bushel more for it than for spring wheat, so 
there is considerable inducement offered for trying to raise it. 
On the Idalia divide, about one half the wheat seen by me in 
I 9°3 was fell wheat, while on the Vernon divide about ten per 
cent of the wheat was fall wheat. 
During the years 1902 and 1903, a spring variety of macaroni 
wheat has been introduced into the country. It is a hard wheat 
and seems to be quite drought-resisting, although it has as yet, 
given only about the same yield as the ordinary spring wheat. 
About 2500 bushels of this wheat were grown on the two divides 
in 1903. For a time the growers seemed unable to find a market 
for their macaroni wheat after they had raised it, but when deal- 
