. Bulletin of the Department of Agriculture. Agriculture; Agriculture. BULLETIN No. 546 i mxj£r' Contribution from the Bureau of Plant Industry ^ jg^^, WM. A. TAYLOR, Chief SU^^mTU. Washington, D. C. PROFESSIONAL PAPER June 27, 1917 EFFECT OF FALL IRRIGATION ON CROP YIELDS AT BELLE FOURCHE, S. DAK. By F. D. Farrell, Agriculturist in Charge of Demonstrations on Reclamation Projects, and Beyer Aune, Farm Superintendent, Vfestern Irrigation Agriculture. CONTENTS. Page. Introduction 1 Rainfall •. 2 Soil 3 Methods used in the experiments 4 Results of the experiments 5 Results of the experiment
. Bulletin of the Department of Agriculture. Agriculture; Agriculture. BULLETIN No. 546 i mxj£r' Contribution from the Bureau of Plant Industry ^ jg^^, WM. A. TAYLOR, Chief SU^^mTU. Washington, D. C. PROFESSIONAL PAPER June 27, 1917 EFFECT OF FALL IRRIGATION ON CROP YIELDS AT BELLE FOURCHE, S. DAK. By F. D. Farrell, Agriculturist in Charge of Demonstrations on Reclamation Projects, and Beyer Aune, Farm Superintendent, Vfestern Irrigation Agriculture. CONTENTS. Page. Introduction 1 Rainfall •. 2 Soil 3 Methods used in the experiments 4 Results of the experiments 5 Results of the experiments—Continued. Crop yields 6 Soil moisture 8 Character of soil the determining factor 10 Summary 12 INTRODUCTION. One of the conspicuous features of the climate of the. Great Plains area is the light precipitation received during the winter months. Throughout most of the Plains region, about three-fourths of the annual precipitation occurs during the six months from April to September, inclusive,1 so that the winter months are, comparatively, very dry. As a result, it is commonly found that after producing a crop the land remains dry from harvest time until the rainy season of the following year. The soil on such land during this period may be deficient in moisture not only near the surface but throughout the zone of action of the roots of crop plants. It has been assumed that this soil-moisture deficiency might have an unfavorable influence on the growth of crops, both by hindering the germination of spring- sown seed and by retarding or preventing the desired movement of the water received as precipitation or applied in irrigation during the growing season. The practice of fall irrigation—the application of water to the land in the fall of the year—has been advocated as a corrective of this condition in irrigated regions. Various writers on irrigation have suggested the desirability of fall irrigation, and a few investi- 1 Briggs, L. J., and Belz, J. O. Dry farming in
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