Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 210, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 September 1916 — WHEAT A HARD DRINKER [ARTICLE]

WHEAT A HARD DRINKER

Every pound of wheat requires an average of 450 to 500 pounds of water to carry it from planting to maturity. Early plowing and frequent working of the seedbed helps to retain soli moisture. A light harrowing or disking early in the spring cultivates the wheat and forms a soil mulch that prevents the escape of winter rains so needed by the wheat when filling and ripening. Experiment stations have found that wheat, well supplied with available plant food or growing on rich soils, can produce a bigger crop with less moisture than it can on a poor soil or oh one not well supplied with available plant food. <J Wheat on rich soils contihues to grow even If the supply of moisture is scanty. Supplying available plantfood to wheat enables it to produce larger yields on the same amount* of water. This is especially important when the rainfall is below normal. Organic matter holds water like a sponge and releases it to the wheat for germination. In the spring it holds the winter’s rains Until the wheat needs them for final growth and ripening. A supply of sufficient moisture at filling time often makes a crop. The farmer cannot make it rain at this critical stage, but he can keep up the organic matter that will bold the season’s rain until needed.