Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1914-07-17
STATE EXPERIMENT STATION
REPRESENTS A GIGANTIC WORK
Iwenty-three Hundred Grain Experiments
Being Observation-Disclosures Increases
One=F1alf in Ten Years Time

With the threshing season near at
hand the results OF hundreds OF
grain experiments being conducted
on the farm of the state experiment
station here will soon be known. The
state farm now presents a scene of
much activity, and the casual visitor
to the experimental plots is inn
pressed at once with the magnitude
OF the enterprise which has as it's
aim the betterment of rural condi-
tons through increased yields, bet
ter methods of soil tillage. cleaner
crops and continuous use of the soil,
and with the thoroughness with
which the work of the experts con-
nected with the station is done,
proved by beautiful fields of all
kinds OF grain and legumes, with not
weed in sight and the soil in per-
feet condition.
An idea of the magnitude of the
work OF the farm is CLEANED through
the fact that at the present time
more than $500 different grain ex-
periments are being conducted, as
we'll as innumerable experiments
with legumes, grasses, etc. Two
hundred varieties of winter wheat
are grown on the farm. together with
1870 varieties of spring wheat. If
further proof than the magnificent
stands OF grain is needed that the
work OF the station experts is we'll
done, it is found in the fact that dur
ing the past ten years, with crop
of some kind grown on the ground
every year, the productivity of the
soil has increased so per cent. This
showing has been made possible
through proper tillage and a rota-
ton of crops.
The principal grain experiments,
in selection, breeding and variety
testing, are conducted on a field
which is divided into three parts,
and each part grows grain only every
third year, peas and corn being al
ternated. The breeding experiments
are for smut resistance, high nitro
gen content, straw that will not
lodge, mountaineering heads, bigger
yield, etc. Several varieties of grain,
notable among which is the Alaska
wheat, have been found to resist
smut almost entirely, but none of
these grains prove of commercial
value, hence their powers to resist
the disease avail the farmer nothing
In a five-year experiment for
yield, College Hybrid No. 143, a
cross between little club and white
tract, shows a five-bushel per year
advantage over red Russian, the
heaviest yielding of the older vari-
cites raised in this section, and in
the smut resistance experiments
with these two breeds there was
practically no difference, which
WOulu ulSpIONc inc SOIueWudl BGH-
eral idea that No. 143 smuts easily.
One of the most interesting of the
experiments which are now almost
at maturity is that in which two
parallel plots of wheat figure. One
plot on which was planted wheat
treated for smut and sown in clean
soil, shows a magnificent stand of
wheat almost entirely free from
smut, while the adjoining plot,
which was planted at the same time
with seed wheat which had been
rolled in smut and the soil inOcu-
lated with the smut germs, shows a
stand of wheat SO per cent smutty.
A convincing argument in favor of
crop rotation is the magnificent
stand of oats on one of the fields.
The yield of this field is estimated
at nearly 70 bushels per acre. Last
year the same field produced 43
bushels of field peas, the previous
year Al bushels Of wheat to the