The Mobridge news. [volume] (Mobridge, Walworth Co., S.D.) 190?-1917, 1914-05-08
PRACTICAL VALUE OF MY COURSE
IN FARM CROPS.
State College Student Gives Reasons
Why Training Is Valuable.
BY Omer Mills, Pennington County.

BY Omer Mills, Pennington County.
There are a number Of things which
| have learned from my course in Farm
Crops that | expect to be able to apply
to advantage in actual farming. For
Instance, a knowledge of what crops,
because Of their peculiar characters,
are best suited to cultivation in my
W home locality; and some informa-
ton as to which varieties, other things
being equal, will give the largest
yields under the %unfavorable cOndi-
lions in that country, IS usuable and
valuable knowledge. Probably more
valuable still is the ability to wisely
select and prepare seed grain for SOW
ing, and to improve crops by means OF
seed and breeding plots. Since these
are things upon which successful ag-
riculture largely depends, it seems to
me that they are things we'll worth
any farmers time to know.
Farmers Do Not Farm Wisely.
In that part of the state in which
I happen to be most interested Ppn-
nington county,. 1t is not generally
known which crops, with the possible
exception Of alfalfa and corn, will
prove to be most profitable: and as
regards varieties, which are best suit
ed TO the climate and soil conditions.
there is almost a complete lack Of in
formation. The crops which have been
most extensively grown In the past are
wheat and oats, which are most quick
ly affected by any dry weather, rather
than corn, which is better able to
withstand the dry spells. AS no atten-
ton has been given to the matter.
those varieties with drouth-resistant
or early maturing characters, such as
Kubanka wheat, and Sixty-Day oats,
have occupied but a small place as
compared with poorly adapted varie-
ties. While the farmers attribute their
successive failures to drouth alone.
anyone who has made a study Of farm
crops can see hat the plan Of cropping
has no been what it should for a dry
country. If the proper crops had been
sown, something might have been
raised, whereas failure was often alb.
solute.
Yield Must Be Increased.
Even when the right crops and best
adapted varieties are grown there will
still be need for every effort to in
crease the yield if the operation is TO
be successful from a financial stand
point. In the farm crops course at the
State College we learned how this end
might be attained for the small grains
by cleaning, grading. and treating the
seed; or to a greater degree by the
selection Of desirable heads, either bv
bulk or by individual head method. and
increasing the seed by the seed plot
method. In regard to corn there is, in
addition to the selection and increase
Of good seed, an opportunity TO breed
a strain especially adapted to the local
conditions. This sort Of work can be
done only by someone who has made a
study of it and who knows how to pro-
coed.
Values Corn Study Most.
Since corn must have a large place
in the crop scheme for the west.
river country" and since there is no
variety at present especially adapted
and acclimated TO that locality, ! value
above all the rest that part of the
farm crops course which deals with
corn. To be able to select the best
ears Of seed corn from the desirable
type of stock; then to test the Yielding
qualities OF each separately, and in
crease seed from the few best, giving
added vigor by cross-breeding is sore-
thing worth while. The results which
it is possible to bring about for a
n~eighborhood by such work make this
part Of the course OF inestimable
value.