The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1914-02-13

dAouth ot4d oliONlSSS NlillpI D. III <
cent years kharkov winter wheat has
demonstrated that it is the one va
riety that can withstand the winters,
and a grain sorghum known as kao-
lang, has been introduced and thor.
Oughly tested and not found wanting.
Broom corn, too, both Standard and
Dwarf, have given profitable returns.
These facts were not learned with
out effort. There was no gold-paved.
royal road to this knowledge. To learn
these things ii was necessary to try
out hundreds of failures, but the def
mite successes have been worth the
effort. 1t can be stated With on
servatism that a high per cent Of all
the definite knowledge about crops for
central South Dakota that now cX-
lists has been dug out Of the soil of the
old farm lying just to the northwest
of Highmore.
There is no question but that there
is a demand for this knowledge. The
experiment station management an
swcIed upwards OF six thousand per-
sonal inquiries during the past year,
ana no small proportion of the an
swers to these inquiries were based
upon the results obtained at the High
more sub-statiOn.
1t may not be as generally known
as it should be that some varieties of
each crop have yielded profitable av-
| erage returns for the last eight years,
and that other varieties Of the same
! crop have failed miserably, that hay-
ing the best varieties as compared
with not having them would have
meant all the difference between sue
cess and failure to many settlers. This
does not mean that some varieties
have yielded proftably every season,
but 1t mean definitely that one or
more varieties Of each crop have given
average yields during the last eight
years that were profitable. These va
rieties are in some cases sufficiently
increased to be of statewide useful
ness. In other cases there is much
yet to be done in the way Of increasing
them before they will be obtainable
in quantity. One of the main diff
culties in the past has been the gen.
eral tendency on the part OF the
growers to insist that "pigs is pigs"
or that oats Is oats or that barley is
barley, and that it is not important
to know what variety n is growing,
to grow a good one and to keep it up
to standard and free rs possible from
mixture. Fortunately, this tendency
Is decreasing. AS a result of this in
creasing interest, the problem of
bringing good varieties into general
usefulness is becoming less difficult
and seeds are being increased as RAP
idly as the seasons will permit. For
example, from one head of KaOliang
selected in 1909, there were growing
about forty acres of this crop in 1913.
Much credit is due to members Of the
South Dakota Experiment Association
for this rapid increase.
Alfalfa.
Grimm, Baltic and n or two i'm
portations OF Turkestan alfalfa have
ten years of more than n ton per
acre. Since good alfalfa hay is about
as valuable as good wheat bran. if fed
to dairy cows, it doesn't take very
much mathematics to figure out tsa
value per acre of such a crop, nor the
value Of land hat will produce it.
While it is true that many alfalfas
have been tried and found wanting at
Highmore, the station results have
proven that certain varieties of this
crop can be grown profitably on the
high dry prairie. One good crop Is
usually all that can be expected per
season, but one good crop is enough.
The production of alfalfa seed is also
an industry that can be developed as
a profitable sideline of the dairy and
stock business.
The Future.
While much has been learned with
regard to varieties and crops best
adapted. there is still much to learn
with regard to methods of producing
crops and keeping up the soil fertility.
The present management has been in
.harge since July 1st, 1911. A definite