Show TO DRYLAND DRY LAND FARMERS the department of agriculture in cooperation with the utah agricultural experiment station will shortly publish department bulletin no tillage and rotation experiments peri ments at nephi utah this bulletin which is based upon five and ten year observations in the juab valley in central utah where the average annual precipitation is 1340 inches should be of interest to dryland dry land farmers farm ers genially gen rally and particularly those of the great plains area the tests most of which have been in progress since 1908 dealt with stubble treatment immediately after harvest time and depth of plowing cultivation of fallow seeding cultivation and harvesting the crop frequency of cropping and diversity of crops crop s in rotation the following is a summary of the 45 pages of the bulletin effect of different plowing methods the average results of fi five v 0 years 1909 to 1913 inclusive show that spring plowing was better than fall plowing for moisture conservation in yield of grain and in cost of producing the crop spring plowing gave an average yield of bushels per acre as compared with bushels for fall plowing owing to this difference in yield and the lower cost of producing the crop spring plowing gave a net acre profit of more than fall plowing the results of five years show that there was no advantage in deep plowing or sub soiling over shallow plowing so far as moisture conservation is concerned there was no material difference in the yields obtained from plats plowed at different depths varying from 5 to IS 18 inches the highest average yield was obtained from plats plowed 10 inches deep and the lowest average yield was from the plats sub soiled 18 inches deep while the 5 inch plowing yielded higher than the 15 inch sub soiling one years result from a test of deep fall plowing and shallow spring plowing compared with shallow fall and deep spring plowing show no difference in soil moisture and but slight difference in yield the result of five years experiments peri ments on fall plowed fallow show that the moisture of the cultivated plats remained practically the same throughout the season while that of the uncultivated plats rapidly declined until by fall it was reduced to a comparatively low point it itis ia probable that weeds and volunteer grain were important factors in this loss of moisture the average acre yield of the cultivated plats was 17 bushels as compared with 13 bushels on the uncultivated plats the results of one season on spring plowed fallow show no difference in the moisture content of the plats cultivated or not cultivated the yields and 95 bushels per acre favor the plat time of planting the results of 10 years show no correlation between the time of sowing winter wheat and the yield but the best yields have usually been obtained from plats seeded between september 1 and oct 15 there was no significant difference between the average moisture content of the plats for any one or all years the chief problem in the time of seeding tests of winter wheat now seems to be a mechanical one involving some improvement of the machinery used in seeding it is believed that this will ob obviate the necessity of waiting fo for rain before seeding thus permitting early seeding which seems desirable and allowing the crop ti time me enough to make a fair growth before the advent of winter late planting is often followed by much which completely offsets the value ye of any tillage method used in preparing the land and of the quantity of moisture stored anit in it seeding methods the average result of five years tests show no difference in the yields of winter wheat seeded at different depths the yie yields I 1 ids were greatly influenced by condi conditions tons at seeding time th the ordinary drilling of winter wheat has given more profitable yields than broadcasting or cross drilling the result of three years e experiments peri ments show that winter wheat sown at the rate of four to five pecks per acre is more profitable than when sown at three pecks per acre the rate ordinarily used on the dry lands while spring plowing as compared with fall plowing shows a net gain of per acre A |