Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1911-08-11
> SOIL TROUBLES AND WHEAT.
= 'N%i CULTURE.
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Since l began to write about the
findings of the Botanical Department
of the North Dakota Agricultural Col
lege Experiment Station relative to
certain diseases of wheat which effect
the roots, straw and seeds of the
wheat plant and which tend to be
! carried over from crop to crop either
| in the seed or in the soil, certain
people, not particularly we'll informed
regarding farming methods, have ex-
| hi5ited considerable needless appre-
hension regarding the matter. Some,
fear, only pretend apprehension
! Now let me say that l do not write
about plant diseases for the purpose
! OF frightening anyone, but am doing
so to call farmers attention to con-
/ ditions relative to proper cropping, so
that they may raise as large crops
each year as possible. This may tend
to make the farmers prosperous and
those WHO deal in land and in the
crops which the farmers grow, ought
to be thoughtful enough about their
own welfare not to object when it Is
necessary to point out the difficulties
which stand In the way of good agri-
culture.
In calling farmers attention to the
fact that the methods which are, at
the present time, most commonly FOL-
lowed in cropping wheat in the North
west are bringing about condition
of so4l-sickness which is quite anala-
gous to the flax-sick condition of the
soil, am stating a plain truth, but
there Is nothing about this fact to
cause anyone to worry about Mime
sofa or Dakota Soils These facts Of
disease have not been stated before,
because no one had previously made
proper studies upon wheat seeds.
wheat roots and wheat soils to allow
one to do so. This teaching which
calls for proper care of the wheat
soils with reference to their sanitary
conditions for. the growth of wheat,
it Is true. is new, but the disease of
wheat roots are old. Agriculturists
have always known that the proper
long serted crop rotations helped to
raise a good crop of wheat, but they
could not account for the rapid deter
ioration of the wheat yields upon the
new lands and upon lands yet known
to be fertile. 1t was usually said that
rather constant cropping to one crop
tends to reduce the fertility of the soil
below a point which a pay crop could
be produced. However. often, the
best sort of rotations have failed mis-
erably to give the results naturally
to be expected. This finding regard
ing internally infected seed and dis
ease infected soils is perhaps the
chief explanation of such reduced
yields on lands of known fertility and
proper culture.
In other words. now that we know
about these rather persistent wheat
and soil troubles, our farmers can
take rational steps to counterfeit their
effects, indeed, n large part, to do
away with them. This is a real doc
trine of hope, hope that We can soon
arrange suc, proper and successful
crop rotations, seed selections and
seed treatments and so handle the
farm manures, that uniformly, much
better results shall come from farm
efforts; hope that by proper blowing
and the other necessary methods of
culture, the old wheat acres may
again be brought back to proper
yields of normally plump grain at
reasonable cost of effort
When the SYMPTOMS and nature OF
these wheat root diseases are as we'll
and generally understood by the farm
ing public as is now the case with the
potato scab and wi eat smut. farmers
will see and understand quite clearly
the chief reasons for careful seed
grading. seed treatment and crop ro-
tation. II it is not that the fertility
OF the soil is 50 much injured by the
use of the single crop method, as that
its mechanical texture is spoiled, and
it has become filled with the sort of
disease germs which are character
istic of that particular crop.
There is nothing about the nature
of the root of diseases of wheat
which may not rather easily be over
come by proper methods of agricul-
ture When we can succeed in getting
farmers generally to plow properly,
harrow and pack properly, and to pro-
save their own seed; to grade and dis
infect it; and to carry out proper
crop rotations.
AS in the past. some such disease
Will appear in every crop just as
some smut now escapes, but their &C.
curence in generally destructive form
should from now on be wholly un-
necessary.
What to do. L. Grow your own
seed. 2. Grade It each year to proper
size, weight and color and treat it
thoroughly before planting. 3. Ro-
tate your crops using four or five
other sorts Of crops on your fields
between wheat crops. Pasture land,
corn and flax usually give the best
results in the Northwest. 4. In max
ing use OF barnyard manures which
are made from wheat, barley or oats
straw, they should be either be thor
oughly composted or, II hauled fresh
from the stables, the manure should
applied to grass, corn or potato lands
at least two years before wheat is
to be sown there. A good start for
rotation to be applied to the old wheat
lands would be-: