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Show GREAT PLAINS WHEAT Disked Corn Land Gives Most Satisfactory Results. Little Difference Noted Following Fall and Spring Plowing Green Manuring Ma-nuring Is Most Expensive Method Under Trial. "When the differences in value of the yields of spring wheat are less than the difference in cost of production, produc-tion, then cost becomes the determining determin-ing factor," is one of twelve conclusions conclu-sions drawn from extensive experimental experi-mental work carried on by 14 stations over a series of years and dealt with at length in United States department of agriculture Bulletin No. 214, "Spring Wheat In the Great Plains Area. Relations of Cultural Methods to Production." The Great Plains area includes parts of ten states, 40,. 000 square miles of territory, taking in much of' North Dakota, South Dakota, Dako-ta, Montana, Nebraska, Kansas, Okla. homa, and parts of Colorado, Wyoming, Wyom-ing, Now Mexico and Texas. In these states 14 stations have worked on these spring-wheat problems. Among the general conclusions brought out by a study of the results at the 14 stations is one that shows the average difference in the yields of spring wheat following fall plowing and spring plowing is very small. At most stations the advantage of one over the other depends upon the season. sea-son. The data obtained indicate the importance of understanding the general gen-eral principles that govern the observed ob-served seasonal variations and the Importance Im-portance of adjusting this work to the general economy of farm organization. Disked corn ground has given consistently con-sistently high yields. This, together with the low cost of this preparation for wheat, has resulted in its uniform showing of the greatest profit per acre at those stations where it has been possible to raise wheat at a profit and the least loss at those stations where wheat has been raised only at a loss. The realization of these profits, however, how-ever, depends upon the successful growth of corn as a general farm crop in competition with other crops, according ac-cording to the deductions drawn in this bulletin. Subsoiling. as compared with wheat stubble fall plowed without subsoiling. has been of doubtful utility as a means of increasing yields. As a means of overcoming drought it is without value. Green manuring is the most expensive expen-sive method under trial. It resembles resem-bles a fallow In that it requires the use of the land for two years for the production of one harvested crop with the added expense of seed and seeding. There is a saving of cultivation cultiva-tion during the spring while the green manure crop is growing, but this is offset by the necessity of plowing to turn the crop under and is not sufficient suffi-cient to make up for the cost of seed and seeding Yields have not been commensurate with the increased cost of production. It is hardly fair to charge the whole cost of green manuring to the one crop that immediately im-mediately follows it as is done in this bulletin. It should have a cumulative effect in building up the soil or remedying rem-edying its deficiency in organic matter. mat-ter. The evidence shows that on normal nor-mal soils in the Great Plains at least in the first ,vears of the work little effect from green manuring is shown on other than the first crop. One fact standing out prominently is that cultivation is not an unfailing solution of the problem of drought. It will doubtless alleviate it to some extent but can never fully overcome it. At different times and in different sections certain methods have been exploited as to the solution of the problem of dry farming. Each of these systems may have merit, but any and I all fall far short of the panacea under ; all conditions. |