The weekly times-record. (Valley City, N.D.) 1912-1922, 1915-08-12
SPRING WHEAT
GIVES THE CROP

have given better yields than winter
wheats at the Williston, North Dakota,
sub-station where experiments with
cereal crops have been conducted
since 1908, by the U. S. department of
agriculture in cooperation with the
North Dakota agricultural experiment
station. The results obtained at this
station are of especial interest to farm
ers living in western North Dakota
and eastern Montana. Among the
spring wheats, Durum produced high
er yields than the common spring
wheats, except in the dry years of
1910 and 1911.
Kubanka Durum whea. gave the
highest average, 1913 bushels per acre,
of all the spring wheats tested during
the past isx years; Power Fife wheat
stood second, producing 2S.6 bushels
per acre. In tests made with the blue
stem group of wheats, it was found
that they did not yield as well as the
Durums and Flies, and the average
weight per bushel was also somewhat
lower. The rate of seeding tests with
the blue stem wheats indicated that
the highest yields are obtained from
sowing four pecks to the acre. The
cause of winter wheat yielding less on
the average than the spring wheats is
attributed to the fact that the former
frequently winter kills. Sowing win
ter wheat in grain stubble or standing
corn, however, gives protection to the
plants and reduces the loss from that
source.
In testing the varieties of oats for
the seven-year period it was found the
best three varieties are Abundance,
which yielded, on an average, 66.4
bushels per acre; Lincoln, $50 BUSH
els; and Siberian, 64.5 bushels. These
are all mid-season varieties. The late
maturing varieties of oats, such as
White Russian, and the very early var
ieties, Sixty-Day and Kherson, yielded
much less than the mid-season varie-
ties. Experiments in the rate of seed
ing tests with Swedish-Select oats in
dictate that the best yields are obtain
al NV 70 civ re-
per acre.
In the work with barley the scien-
fists found the six-rowed group of bar
ley yielded better than the two-rowed
group. The highest average yield was
1919 bushels and was produced by a
strain of Manchuria barley.
Much difficulty was experienced in
keeping the ground sufficiently clean
from weeds so that barley could be
made successful crop. OF the six
years that the tests were made, only
four crops were harvested and the
average yield of the highest-producing
variety was 1872 bushels per acre.
Emmer and spring rye have given as
high average yields as oats, barley or
wheat. Prose- has been grown in
field plats during the past three years
and gave an average yield of seed of
Is bushels per acre. Kursk millet,
grown on a test plat in 1914, yielded
80 bushels Of seed per acre.
Until within the past few years all
of western North Dakota and eastern
Montana was range country. Now
however, there are no large ranches
except in the rough areas where the
raising of crops is difficult. The new
settlers raise wheat almost exclusive
ly during the first few years. After
that they gradually adopt system of
more diversified farming, including the
growing Of other small grains, corn
and legumes, and the keeping of live
stock.
/ The soil in the portion of the station
where the cereal experiments were
conducted consists of fairly uni
form type of fine sandy loan, on which
irrigation water is not available. The
new bulletin, No. 270, by the U. S. De-
partment of Agriculture, Cereal Exper-
iments at Williston, North Dakota,
| gives somewhat in detail the work
with a number of cereal crops during
the years 1909 to 1914 inclusive. It
shows that the average yearly length
of the frost-free period for 80 years
has been 119 days. The average date
of the last killing frost in the spring
during the above period is May 10,
! and the average date of the first kill.
ing frost in the fall is September IA.
The heaviest rainfall at Williston oc-
Cured during the growing season and
the average rainfall from April to July
inclusive for the past IS years was
/! $3.50 inches; for the entire year, 14.9
! inches. The bulletin gives in detail
tho animal and spa SOna1 rainfall at tho