American Falls press. [volume] (American Falls, Idaho) 1907-1937, 1911-05-20
CULTIVATION OF SMALL GRAINS
Agronomist OF Agricultural College
Gives Results OF Expericnce.

Gives Results OF Experience.
The value of cultivation OF hoed
crops has so long been recognized
that no one knows when the adyan-
tage was first discovered. and the
seeming impossibility of the culti
vation of small grains has led to the
erroneous conclusion that such
grains would either be killed out
right or be severely injured if they
should feel the effects of a roller
and harrow or that such cultivation
would be entirely non remunerative.
But this is not the case, and while
the cultivation of the small grains
Is not so remunerative as that of
the larger crops, yet it pays and
pays big.
There are some very fundamental
reasons why this is SO. Considering
first the conditions of fall sown
grains we find the ground well pre-
pared by seasons summer fallow
or good disking to fine and loosen
the top for seeding. All this is per-
fectly correct, but the effect of the
winters rain and melting snow is to
pack the soil closer and closer until
the spring breakup when the alter
mating freezing and thawing heaves
1t up exposing the roots and crowns
or the grain. Then the final spring
rains come which runs the mellow
soil together to dry in a hard crust
with the first sun. This packing of
the soil beneath the surface is the
proper thing, but the surface crust
and the heaving are two evils which
require attention
Experiments have shown that
wheat when badly heaved is greatly
benefited by rolling the ground
when dry enough to permit. The
following quotation from press bull
letin No. 80 of the Nebraska Exper-
iment station: Rolling winter
wheat in the spring has not failed
in any of the four years to give an
Increased yield. the average being
81 bushels per acre The rolling
was given early in the spring soon
after the frost was out, and about
the time growth started Narrowing
after rolling was not so good as roll
ing alone, probably due to loosening
up the plants after the rolling had
pressed them firmly into the soil.
- oPtih6 Ol ~lnt6T
grain. pressing the earth as it does
firmly about the plant roots. produ-
ces good results. When frost comes
out in the spring it is very apt to
leave the soil filled with small
cracks or checks. especially around
the plants II these checks are ex-
amined closely, it will be seen that
a large number of roots are thus ex-
posed. and if the weather continues
dry these are killed OF at least in
jured. We have taken up plants in
the spring where half the roots were
injured in this manner.
Ii the soil is not wet at the time
of rolling, and it should never be
rolled when wet, rolling aids in no
small degree to form a surface
mulch. 1t does this rather than
compact the surface"
This surface crust of the soil is
very detrimental in a country where
the annual rainfall does not exceed
20 inches and the summer rains are
very light. 1t forms close capil-
larry connection with the surface and
the result is a rapid loss of water
The breaking up of this crust forms
sufficient amount of moisture to
greatly influence the yield of grain.
This fact was favorably brought out
at our own experiment station in
the season of 1910. During the ear
ly part of that season we gave our
fall grain two good harrowings and
as result harvested to bushels
more per acre than did our neigh
bors who did no cultivating. The
adjoining fields of the same kind of
land but without cultivation yielded
80 to 35 bushels while ours whcih
was cultivated yielded So TO AZ
bushels per acre.
Always follow the spring seeding
with harrow, then after the grain
is four TO five inches high harrow
again. This method netted from 81
to 81 bushels per acre of oats in
1910, while our neighbors who took
no such precautions and seeded late
reaped harvest varying from COM
plete failure to thirty and forty bush
els per acre.
L. F. CHILDERS,
Agronomist State experiment station