American Falls press. [volume] (American Falls, Idaho) 1907-1937, 1918-02-26

We are learning to pillow. We raise
something even in the dry years, and
nobody talks of quitting. but it is dis
couraging to the former to have to
buy feed after dry years. with his
profits form the good years.
Nineteen-seventeen was a tremen-
dous vindication of the summer fallow
for wheat. Wherever this was ef-
ficiently practiced the crops We're all
most normal in spite of the drOuth
All thru the great wheat belt of east
ern Oregon and Washington (orig-
inally %sagebrush wastesl. where fall
lowing is religiously practiced, an
average of 20 bushels was secured on
a precipitation in many districts of
less than S inches.
Those who read about Canada and
the northwest often wonder what
the secret is of the farmers success in
wheat raising. 1t is like all other
secrets, very simple when you know
it. If you go TO Canada to raise wheat
you have to fallow your land whether
you wish to or nOt-there is no other
way out. The season is so short that
unless your land is plOwed the year
before. and all ready to slap the seed
in the moment the frost is out of the
ground, the late summer frosts will
catch your Fife wheat before you can
harvest it. Any man who has good
soil and is satisfied to pillow deep, and
to fallow, need not mOv any nearer
to the Arctic Circle to raise good
wheat.
The dry years indicate that spring
blowing for immediate planting 10
grain is a mistake. The first to dry
out are the oats and the mex to go
is spring wheat, or winter wheat
which has been run in on stubble.
Flowing should on the
dry farm as soon as the frost will
allow it, and disking may commence
as soon as the top for 8 or 4 inches are
thawed out. Disking makes the break
ing of sod much easier and should be
used on old plowed land as we'll. for it
improves the filth of the lower layers
of the seed bed to pillow under the we'll
disked surface. 1t is also good policy
TO disk all fields which are waiting for
the pillow so that they will remain
moist. for it sometimes happens that
soil which has not been titled be-
comes too dry to pillow even in spring
time when it happens to be a long
time between showers.
Some moisture may usually be con
served for late crops by spring fallow-
ing. which consists in blowing early
and disking and narrowing alternately
enough to destroy the weeds until
planting time about June. The spring
fallow will be found much better for
corn, sudan grass. the sorghum tribe.
and beans than late blowing. which is
always too dry and over-aerated, and
can hardly be satisfactorily packed.
Beans Shallow Roofing
Some of the best crops of beans
last year were raised on summer fall
lowed land which had been originally
intended for wheat. Fall blowing also
is better for this crop than spring
blowing, and depth counts. The roots
OF beans, unlike those of wheat. sell
dom work their way very deeply into
the subsOil but like those of potatoes.
they subsist mainly on the seed bed.
and naturally the deeper the seed bed
the more beans.
we nave never lEtOlllAltilQtu Nnt
planting of winter wheat after any
crop without blowing; but if the
farmer wants TO take a chance beans
are his best bet. and in case of a poor
promise in the spring he can always
pillow it under in time for corn or some
sorghum crop.
Beans, wheat and corn make a very
fair rotation for the farmer. AL
falfa or white clover are also ecellent
in the place of beans. but they occupy
the land too long for those who are
raising cash crops rather than feed for
stock.
Last year was hard on beans. never
theless the crop did remarkably Wen
considering, and with a little deeper
seed bed the yield could easily be
doubled in an average season. when
We consider the wonderful adapta-
bility of this legume to dry farming
conditions, its benefit to the soil and
its value as human food in this period
of worldwide food shortage. the writer