Union County courier. [volume] (Elk Point, Union County, D.T. [S.D.]) 187?-1913, 1906-08-09
obtainsble and grade it with my seed
cleaner aud grader"

| There are two ways OF growing win
ter wheat: BY drilling it in on corn
stubble after the corn has been cut up
for the silO, and without further prepa-
ration, not later than the first of Octo-
ber and using disk drill. This Is the
method we follow on our Iowa farm.
The other method is to take oat
stubble, psow il in August, harrow i'm
mediately after blowing, and go over it
once week or ten days with the disk
or harrow, as the circumstances may
require, the object being to secure a
seed bed thoroughly compact at the
time, when close capillary connec tion
with the sub-soil, and about two inches
of loose dirt on top. Winter wheat
should always be drilled. The time Of
sowing varies somewhat with the lati-
tude and with the season, but in the
latitude of Carthage, Illinois, it can be
sown with safety up to October lst,
while further north it should be sown
earlier-as soon as possible, say from
the goth TO the 25th OF September.
The reason for tie later sowing south
is to avoid the ravsges OF the Hessisn
fly, which is the greatest enemy to
winter wheat. The time of the laying
of the eggs of the fly Is determined by
the GOODNESS of the evenings, and hence
the further south the later should be
the sowing, which is rendered practc
able by the length Of the season. On
account of the longer autum in the
more southern latitudes, the late sown
winter wheat has time to get thorough
ly rOOted~tO cover the ground, thus
furnishing winter protection, while
further north, earlier sowing Is advis-
able.
The important thing in sowing win
ter wheat Is to get the ground in pro-
per Physical condition. Unless you
have a thoroughly we'll prepared seed
bed it is scarcely worth while to SOW
| winter wheat. II you have thorough
! ly prepared seed bed and the right
kind of seed to SOW, there Is less risk
than in any other crop we know OF,
although it may be one year or two
years In ten that winter wheat may fail
/ only under conditions that favor the
| winter killing of clover as we'll. In
other words, winter wheat is just about
as hardy as clover, and where clover
will live through the winter there is
no reason why. winter wheat should
not live quite as we'll, provided hardy
| variety Is sown, such rs the Turkish
Red. There are sections where the
Turkish Red does not do we'll. Its
southern limit is about the latitute of
! Topeka, Kansas; south Of that the soft
wheat seems to do quite as we'll. or
better, but utterly fails when sown In
northern Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska,
central Iowa, and central Illinois.
We therefore advise our readers to
experiment with winter wheat One
reason why the winter wheat territory
does not extend north faster than it
does Is because farmers do not want to
go to thee expense of getting a drill,
and experiment by sowing broadcast,
thus inviting failure through winter
freezing. We have been growing win
ter wheat ia the latitude of Des Moines
"a few miles sOuth-for the last ten or
fifteen years and would not think of
going back TO spring wheat. The
station at Ames has been growing good
crops, occasionally as high as forty
bushels, for the last ten or twelve years
and this should satisfy farmers that
winter wheat can be grown much far
ther north than they have been dis
posed to believe.
The other method of growing winter
wheat is, we believe, preferable TO that
OF ofseeding oat stubble, although not
quite as large crops can be grown,
Where the farmer has turned under a
clover sod, prepared good seed bed
for corn, and cultivated it in the pro.
per manner, he has almost an ideal
oOC0 oO0 iOI us Wlub0t wheat, Ii Ll6l
he will harvest his corn, secure a disk
drill and sow Immediately after The
corn Is harvested, he will usually ge. il
In about the right time. If he will
drill In bushel and peck of Turkish
Red winter wheat and forget about 1t
he will stand first.class chance of
getting good crop. The expense 10
this method is about as follows: Seed,
bushel aod peck, say $I.50 per acre.
Planting, seeding, so cents per acre.
This is all the expense until 1t is ready
to harvest; 40 cents will usually buy
the twine and 81 90. will put it In
shock, and 10 cents a bushel will
thrash and market. Where land is at
all aparted to winter wheat the average
should not be less than tw enty bushels
per acre, and on very rich land 10
Dod season, will yield from thirty to
forty. The crop on our own farms
last year was thirty-fve bushels; in
1902 1t was forty on one field and forty
three on another. Land, rich bottom
gumbo soil, which produced in 1904