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As a rule, the land in the Red river valley is not fertilized, and produces less than 15 bushels per acre, but the application of fertilizers has given 26 bushels per acre. Rotation of crops is already widely practiced in the northwest, and as the soil becomes more exhausted and the prices of land and produce rise, fertilizers will be used there, just as they have in every other country where similar conditions arose. Even the largest bonanza farmers are looking forward to the time when they must fertilize. Stock will also be raised, and farming will become more diversified. This will give opportunity to utilize many of the products of wheat on the farms where they are produced, and the need for commercial fertilizers may ultimately be removed altogether. One-fourth of the nitrogen and nearly all of the phosphoric acid and potash which enter into a crop of wheat are contained in bran, screenings and middlings. Most of these can be returned to the soil by raising stock. These principles are not mere theories, for their practical working has been demonstrated in Michigan and Illinois, in portions of which the land has been continually growing more fertile under cultivation without the use of a pound of commercial fertilizer.

The average Kansas wheat grower has given little thought yet to fertilizing, but "his methods will change with the years and the necessities." In Minnesota, "results already reached warrant the statement that the average yields per acre of wheat can be increased 25 to 50 per cent by so rotating the crops and manuring and cultivating the fields (as) best to prepare the soil for this grain." The necessity of fertilizing is little felt in Canada as yet.

Fertilizer Laws.-A majority of the United States, including nearly all the states east of the Mississippi, have statutes, most of them rather stringent, governing the sale of commercial fertilizers. That dealers were cheating farmers was first shown by the Massachusetts experiment station. This station was instrumental in the passage of the Massachusetts fertilizer law, which was more or less closely followed by other states. The department of agriculture has made efforts for a more uniform system of laws, and to regulate interstate trade. No general fraud is now practiced. Thousands of official analyses are

1 Minn. Bul. 12, p. 321.

made yearly, and these very largely eliminate fraud and extravagant claims.

Fertilizer Statistics.-The annual sales of fertilizers in the United States exceed $50,000,000, and perhaps over 2,000,000 tons are consumed. During 1896 over 375,000 tons were imported, valued at about $19 a ton, and over 514,000 tons, valued at about $8.50 a ton, were exported. During the first six months of 1905 the importations were valued at nearly $2,000,000. The annual import of nitrate of soda is nearly 200,000 tons, having an average value of about $30 a ton. The first guano sold for about $95 a ton, but later fell to half that amount. A ton of cottonseed meal has a fertilizing value of over $20. A ton of fertilizer, costing $25, is applied to an acre of wheat land in New York. The phosphate mined in the United States in 1899 amounted to 541,645 tons. The average cost of phosphates at the quarry was $4.42 per ton in 1893. In Illinois rock phosphate could be procured at about $8 per ton in 1906, and bone phosphate at $25 per ton. California expended six times as much for fertilizers in 1900 as in 1890. About 1890 the farmers of Ohio were expending a million dollars annually for commercial fertilizers used in the production of wheat.

It is claimed that a trust caused prices of fertilizers to advance from 15 to 25 per cent in 1900. Below is a schedule of prices given for the different fertilizing substances per pound:1

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In Illinois the annual cost of fertilizing an acre of land is about $1.70. Tubercle organisms enable leguminous crops to add from $8 to $10 per acre in nitrogenous fertilizer. In the early nineties over 75 per cent of the fertilizers sold were equal to or above the guaranty under which they were sold. Most of the others were much less than 1 per cent below their guaranty. It has been estimated that with the use of all barn manures and proper cultivation, the soils of the Red river 1 Miss. Bul. 77 (1902), p. 3.

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valley should yield good crops without commercial fertilizers for over a thousand years. "From 7 to 135 pounds of nitrogen, from 3 to 55 pounds of phosphoric acid, and from 3 to 36 pounds of potash are sold with every ton of produce leaving the farm. Eighty billion pounds of nitrogenous material entered into the creation of one harvest in the United States in the early nineties. The cereals annually took from the earth nearly 3 billion pounds of phosphoric acid, and the loss of potash was not less than 4 billion pounds.

1 Yearbook U. S. Dept. Agr., 1897, p. 301.

CHAPTER IX

DISEASES OF WHEAT

Introductory.-Studies in plant pathology of any great practical bearing or importance are decidedly and characteristically modern and recent. In 1885 there were three institutions in the United States besides the department of agriculture which were making systematic efforts in experimental work with plant diseases, and in disseminating such knowledge as then existed in these lines. Ten years later over one hundred special investigators were devoting their time to this work, and 50 colleges and stations were endeavoring to solve its practical problems. The science of plant pathology has had its highest appreciation during the last decade, for some of the outlying problems have been solved, a working foundation has been laid from the facts that were acquired, and a body of institutions with specialists and resources has been developed for scientifically prosecuting the work.

The Classification here followed is practical and inclusive, rather than scientific and exclusive. There is nothing pathological in the sudden destruction of a field of wheat by floods or locusts, but excessive moisture or the presence of a parasite may each bring about diseased conditions, and every gradation of phenomena between these two types must be considered.

Sources of Injury and Weakness are of three kinds: (1) Unfavorable inanimate environment; (2) unfavorable animate environment; and (3) poor seed wheat. When these three sets of factors occur in combination, as they frequently do, their relations and inter-relations are so intimate and intricate as to be inseparable. Only in a general way can they be individually studied.

WEATHER AND SOIL INFLUENCES

Unfavorable Inanimate Environment.-DROUGHT; HAIL, WIND AND RAIN STORMS; FLOODS; FIRE. The operation of these destructive influences needs no further elucidation than a mere

mention. Very little specific information can be found as to the extent of damage caused. Such scattering data as have been collected can be most advantageously presented under the subject of insurance.

FROSTS.-The most usual injury by frost is the winterkilling of fall wheat. This may occur whenever the ground freezes to any appreciable depth, and in two ways. The plants either freeze to death, or are lifted out of the soil by alternate freezing and thawing. A good covering of snow is very protective. Seeding with a press drill lessens the danger. Frost may also injure wheat when it is filling, or it may cause the stems to burst after they have jointed.

HOT WAVES OR WINDS are most liable to occur during a period of drought. It is thought that these waves can be forecasted for a period of about four days. At such times the eastward circulation of the atmosphere is practically suspended, and radiation is at a minimum. A hot wave is defined as a period of three or more consecutive days with a maximum temperature reaching or passing 90° F. In years when hot waves are unusually severe, the harvest returns are decreased by one-fourth in quantity, and the quality is quite inferior. The heat seems to mellow the ground, however, and to put it in such ideal condition as to increase the crop of the following season. Hot winds have a velocity of 20 to 30 miles per hour, a temperature often ranging from 100 to 106° F., and 20 to 30 per cent of relative humidity. The roots cannot supply moisture, even if it is present in abundance, as fast as it is evaporated from the leaves by this great blast of hot, dry air. The cells are completely desiccated, and the whole structure of the plant collapses. A hot wind is most destructive immediately after a rain, which temporarily checks and lessens the transpiration of which the plant is capable. In the United States these winds are most apt to occur in the central prairie regions. In Argentina, a similar dry, hot wind known as the pampero comes up suddenly, destroys all vegetation "and even cracks furniture and timber in buildings." A wind-break of trees, or anything else that tends to lessen the movement of the air, has a remedial effect.

EXCESSIVE MOISTURE.-This may be injurious in a number of ways. If too much water is present, the wheat may be

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