The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1908-03-03

conditions carefully and note the ef-
feet Of different methods Of handling
on your own particular piece Of land
and apply the methods that give the
best results.
The beginner naturally looks for in
struction as to the best way to break
out his land and is anxious to get re-
suits the first season. IN many In
stances this very anxiety to get a crop
leads to his undoing. Those who have
recently located on land around Broad
view will hardly get any land broken.
next spring before June when 1t will
be too late to put in any crops that
season. The best plan for them to
adopt would be to break out their land
during May and June with fat bottom
plows and roll it thoroughly SO as to.
press the sod down fat and then go
over the field with a smoothing har.
row with the teeth slanting we'll back
to avoid tearing up the sod. The
Acme harrow or the John Deere pull
verizer is better than the smoothing
harrow as they cut up the surface Of
the sod and tend to Ill the cracks be-
tween the layers Of sod better than
the latter. The object sought is to
form a sod mulch" which CORE
| spends to the dust mulch which Prof.
Campbell advocates. Land prepared
in this way will be in good shape the
middle of August to back set for
winter wheat or wheat may be drilled
in with disk drills and narrowed i'm
mediately before the wheat comes up.
II 1t continues dry during the fall the
harrow should be u over the field
several times, provided the sod is
well rotted, but should the sod remain
intact it must not be narrowed be-
cause the young wheat will be torn
out by the roots. If the sod, however,
was not broken too deep, say two and
one-half to three inches, and we'll
rolled and narrowed during the sum-
mer, it ought to be pretty we'll rotted
and not interfere seriously with har-
rowing, provided the harrow teeth are
set well aslant.
In case the sod is back set, i. e.,
plowed again with the disk plows, it
should be broken five or six inches
deep and the plows followed immedi-
ately with the Campbell subsurface
packer. By Immediately" / NEAR all
land plowed should be packed each
half day before the team leaves the
field, otherwise the ground will dry
down to the depth Of the blowing and
there will not be sufficient moisture to
sprout the winter wheat and will not
come up until the following spring in
which case the yield will be cut short.
The breaking may be continued all
summer and fall but as ssoon as the
ground gets dry SO that the moldboard
pillow does not do good work the disk
plows should be substituted. Land
plowed in the fall should be left rough
in order to catch the SHOWS and thus
acquire additional moisture during the
winter. AS soon as possible in the
spring these lands should be disked
and narrowed and worked down into as
fine a condition as possible. AS 500
as the soil Is in good condition, even
in March, small grains may be drilled
in. Never SOW broadcast but use some
form Of drill and in light sandy soils
a press attachment is especially val
liable. The spring crops that are best
sown are: Spring rye for hay, white
beardless barley, fax, and last, oats.
Oats require more moisture than any
other crop and consequently are not
as sure a crop as speltz, which makes
N excellent substitute for horse and
hog feed.
Results Obtained at eroadview the
Past Year.
While the past year has had fully
the average amount Of precipitation,
yet has not been a good growing year.
1t was cold and dry during the month
OF April with only 30 inches rainfall.
The month OF May showed a very con-
siderable increase IN precipitation, be-
ing 3.61 inches, but the weather still
continued cold and backward with
frosts during May and June. The pre-
clpitation for June at Broadview was
4.32 inches but at Billings 1t fell short
Of the corresponding month in 1906 by
1.21 inches. All crops were late in
starting, the seed lying in the ground
so long that much OF the vitality OF the
young plants had been Slapped before
it had fairly started. The precipita-
ton for the year beginning November
first, 1906, and ending October thirty
first, 1907, at Broadyiew has been 1874
inches, the larger portion, which is the
case every year, falling during May
and June. The deficiency during April,
however, was marked, as shown
above.
Notwithstanding the adverse con-
ditions with which NJ had to contend
the crop yield has been fairly good
and will exceed the yields reported
from Iowa, Illinois. Wisconsin, the