The ranch. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1902-1914, 1909-02-01
MUST ADOPT BETTER METHODS.

discusses Var1etleS OF spring anu VIII
ter wheat and methods of cultivation
now practiced, especially considering
the Inland Empire. Among other
things he says:
A very large portion of the terri
tory under consideration now produces
a crop of wheat every other year, the
wheat alternating with summer fallow.
This system is uniformly followed in
all localities where the rainfall is
scant.
Near the mountains, where the rain
fall is heavier, two crops are usually
grown each time the land is summer
fallowed. After summer following
crop of winter wheat Is usually grown;
the crops that follow this may be
either barley, oats or wheat. In some
instances two spring crops follow the
winter wheat-first crop of barley
and then a crop of spring wheat.
That the wheat lands of the Column
bia basin will produce cereal crops ex-
clusively for an indefinite time with
out the yields declining is very gen.
eral opinion among the farmers of the
region. But history is against this
opinion. Bountiful harvests for num-
Der of years while the soils are new
and then a decline in the yields has
been the history of all agricultural re-
gions that have followed single crop
system.
System Always Fails.
Wheat was produced quite success
fully in Central New York for some
thing like forty years. During the lat
ter part of that period the yields be-
gan to decline, and at the end of an
other twenty years they were so low
that exclusive wheat growing became
Improbable. Ohio, Indiana, Illinois
and Iowa have each in turn repeated
the history of New York. The soils of
these states were productive in the
beginning and it required forty, fifty
or sixty years for the single crop sys-
tenn to materially reduce the yields.
But it is not necessary to go to the
Eastern states to cite examples of
soils whose productiveness has been
greatly reduced by the same system
of farming that is being practiced in
the Columbia basin.
The Willamette valley, Oregon, was
settled about sixty years ago, and I'M
til recently wheat was the principal
product of the farm. In the begin
ming large yields were secured, but
the soil soon became foul with oats
and other weeds. The summer fallow
system was then adopted. The yields
gradually declined on land that pro-
duced wheat continually, until an aver
age as low as ten or twelve bushels
to the acre was reached These low
yields are driving many to other types
of farming, and the Willamette valley
now gives promise of becoming one of
the leading dairy sections in the Unit
ed States.
The Sacramento valley, California,
is another excellent example. This
valley was settled. some fifty years
ago, and has produced wheat by the
summer fallow system during practi-
cally all the time. The yield has
steadily declined, until now it is prob.
ably as low as ten bushels per acre.
West Must Change Methods.
With due consideration of these ex-
amples of agricultural history, how
can wheat lands of the Columbia ba-
sin be expected to maintain their
prOductiveness Indefinitely? Are not
signs to the contrary manifesting
themselves in parts of the country
at the present time? Twenty years
ago much of the Palouse country gave
as large average yields of spring
wheat, producing crops every year,
as are now secured from winter wheat
grown by the summer fallow system.
The virgin soils of the Palouse country
and the foothills of the Blue noun
tains were mellow and friable, with
little inclination to run together. Sum-
mer following and raising nothing but
cereal crops is continually using up
the decaying vegetable matter in the