The Dickinson press., 1911-11-18
WINTER wheat RAISING
BY RIcHARDT0N PIONEER

Benjamin Webb. one of the early set
tiers of Stark county and proprietor of
the Rosencroft Farm a mile southeast
of R%ichardton, gives his experience in
the following words:
AS winter wheat has been sown this
fall by many farmers it. may not be
amiss to write my experiences with it.
as this is my third year:
On the 10th of September two years
ago I sowed four acres in wheat stubble
and the following year rot a yield of
20 bushels per acre. Although the land
was badly gone to weeds when l SOW ed
the wheat, not a weed grew there until
after the CROP was cut. With the seed
from the 1910 crop. I sowed about 80
acres, drilling in stubble on land that
had been cropped with spring wheat.
There was rain enough to start the seed
growing but as the fall and winter was
unusually dry and the ground bare of
snow during the winter, the spring of
1911 found it in a poor condition and as
the season has been dry and unfavor-
able, the result was that I got about
five bushels per acre of good wheat. I
may explain here that on the same land
the year before l had sowed timothy seed
with the spring wheat. The timothy
seed failed to show up and l sowed the
winter wheat on the same land. The
result was that I got a crop of wheat
and timothy on the same land and the
timothy killed out the wheat entirely
on the part where it was I let
ii all grow and harvested it together
and threshed 265 bushels of winter
wheat and timothy seed. While har-
vesting it a lot OF wheat shelled out,
also the timothy seed shelled out, and
the result has been a fine stand of
timothy as far as it was sown and the
remainder has a volunteer crop of win
ter wheat, which, with the good rains
this fall, has made a fine growth and
if it m out all right in the spring
it will be left to mature what it will.
1t should be ready to harvest in July and
l can then pillow the land which will
be nearly as good as summer fallow.
When the rain came early in September
l sowed 20 acres more to winter wheat.
This is on land plowed the year be-
fore and where the spring wheat was
sown and failed to make any crop.
There is a fine stand on this land and
conditions are very favorable.
The N. P. Ry. Co. has been using
some of our land for experimental
purposes and on this plot we have sown
about one acre of winter wheat in corn
stubble. The land is clean and the crop
is growing nicely.
Experience shows us that winter
wheat must have some protection dur
ing the winter and while the weeds are
not desirable to have in the land. they
nevertheless are just the thing to hold
the snow in winter time. and the
wheat keeps them down until harvest,
when the land car be plowed and the
weeds destroyed.
may not get such big yields per acre
but there is only the expense of seeding
the land and still the yield beats the
spring wheat yield, with all the work
of getting the farm ready for it.
We have 30 acres of winter rye grow
ing under the same conditions as win
ter wheat. It stands the winter better
than wheat and is death on weeds. My
neighbors who have sown either of
these grains this fall are more than
pleased with the prospects, especially
so where the land has a good supply of
moisture and snow to cover it for the
winter.
BENZ. WEBB.