Judith Gap journal. [volume] (Judith Gap, Mont.) 1908-19??, 1909-05-21

Other had produced tifty-nine bushels
OF wheat per acre during that season.
The harvest of 1908 showed that the
summer titled field produced over
hfty-seven bushels per acre, while the
other produced less than twenty-One.
There were two fields on bench land
during the same season. The surface
OF the bench land is thirty feet above
the sub-surface water. One of these
nelds-eight acres-was summer till
Ell. The other tield-tive acres-prO-
duced a crop the season previous.
The eight acre field gave tifty-seven
bushels peracre from sixteen One-half
acre plats III variety, rate of seeding
and time Of seeding tests. The other
held yielded twenty-nine bushels per
acre. The lowest yield of any half
acre plat in the former field was at the
rate OF tifty-three bushels, the highest
at the rate of sixty-siN and nine
tenths. We have some striking yields
from different tillage in the season of
1908, with duran wheat, oats and bar
ley. The yields are for only one sea-
son. and therefore can be taken only
as showing the great variation that
may be produced in the yield from adj
joining plats, because of a difference
in tillage. These yields are from one
tenth acre plats, Oh table land, not in
fluenced in any manner 10y sub-irr-
cation. There are Il few of the plats
III the series of cooperative tests be-
ing carried on by the sub-station and
office of dry land investigation in CO.
operation. Professor Chilcott, the
chief Of this office, explained the
nature OF the work at the first meet
ing of this association held at Denver.
Durum wheat, on spring p0wed
wheat stubble, yielded at the rate of
twenty-five and seven-tenths bushels
per acre: Oh fall plowed wheat stubble
twenty-seven and three-tenths. and
on summer titled wheat stubble forty
| and tve-tenths. Common siX-rOwed
barley, OH spring plowed barley land,
yielded at the rate OF nineteen and
siN-tenths bushels per acre: on fall
plowed barley land forty-three and
| three-tenths bushels per acre: and on
summer titled barley land sixty-seven
and seven-tenths. kherson oats, on
spring plowed oat land yielded at the
rate OF thirty-four-. bushels
| per acre: on fall plowed oat land
| siNty-eight and tive-tenths and on
summer titled oat stubble eighty-two
and three-tenths bushels per acre.
The plats giving these returns lie side
by side in Il uniform soil. The seed
ing was done on all at the same time
| and at the same rate. The difference
in the yields can be accounted for only
by the different methods of tilling the
land. We do not presume that fall
blowing will always yield more than
spring blowing or that summer tillage
will yield SO much more than either
of the other methods, as it did this
spring, but we offer these figures to
show what Il wonderful difference in
Sub-station farm.
During the past two seasons consitl
cradle attention has been given to the
study OF soil moisture. The results
to date indicate that the North Platte
soil will retain only about sixteen
per cent OF water, reckOned in pro-
portion to the dry weight of the soil.
The ordinary crops, as wheat and
oats, will take out of the soil about
seven per cent OF the moisture, or re-
duce the moisture in the soil to about
nine per cent, before the plants suffer
from drouth. 1t also seems apparent
that such crops as the above have use
for the water in the surface six feet
OF the soil. In round numbers, one
per. cent of moisture in a six-foot
column of the North Platte soil is
equivalent to one inch of water.
Therefore, it seems evident that we
can store up by summer tillage seven
inches Of water that may l,e'ayailble
for the succeeding crop. Thisalno,nt
yield may result from tillage. These
are some of the results us represented
by yields from summer tillage Un the
of water distributed as it is through
out the soil. is worth very much more
probably fully twicea rs much rs 'the
same amount of rainfall s,.
Another naticealAe feature is that
the moisture content Of the soil is in
tiuenced to the depth OF ten feet, pos
sibly farther, by summer tillage.
Whether the water driven to this
depth, later becomes available for the
use of the plant is not known. 1t Is
quite probable that the increase IN
yields from summer tillage comes
largely because OF this deep reservoir
of water, which is drawn on during
periods of drOuth. The amount O1