Forage Plants for South Dakota : Silos and Silage

The natural advantages of the state of South Dakota as a stock country have long been recognized. Our range beef end mutton is regarded as second to none in its class. Our wool has earned an enviable reputation in all of the wool centers of America. And last in order of development, but by no means least in importance, our dairy products have established a. name for themselves among the very best on this continent. All of these achievements have been won almost entirely without the a.id of cultivated grains and grasses. Our native prairie grasses have, in nearly all cases, been the principal, and in many instances, the only food of our stock. In some parts of our state the system which has produced such satisfactory results in the past can be continued for a considerable time to come, with but slight modifications, while in other portions, particularly in the older and more thickly settled districts, conditions have so changed, and are still changing, that a very different system must eventually be instituted. In these localities, our native grasses, which have been the basis of nearly all of our success in the past, are fast disappearing and being replaced by inferior introduced grasses and worthless weeds

Speltz vs. Barley - A Comparison of the Food Value of Speltz and Barley as a Single Grain Ration for Fattening Sheep

The grain commonly called Speltz in this state, the two grained Spelt wheat; known in Germany as Emmer (Triticum dioccum), is becoming quite generally grown throughout this State and this Station has received many inquiries concerning its food value. Contrary to the popular belief, this grain is no new discovery or development, but is one of the oldest known cereals, probably having been grown in Egypt, Greece and the Roman Empire from the earliest time. It is now mainly grown in Southern Germany, Switzerland and Spain, on land too poor or at altitudes too great for the profitable raising of common wheat. The following is a description of this grain, taken from Bulletin No. 69, of this Station, Shepard and Saunders

Irrigation in South Dakota

The James River Valley in South Dakota is one of the most fertile tracts of prairie land to be found in the Northwest. It comprises the whole central portion of the state lying along the James River., which flows through the state from north to south. This stretch of prairie land is noted for its wealth of native grasses and for its crops of cereals and for its herds of stock. Were it not that at intervals dry seasons occur, this belt would be a veritable Eldorado for the husbandman. Where so many natural advantages are to be found coupled with such abundant fertility of soil, it is not strange that means should be sought to supply any deficiency of moisture that might occur from time to time and thus to render crop production a matter of inevitable certainty from year to year. But nature has been lavish in her gifts to this region. This valley is situated in the greatest artesian basin known. Just underneath the thousands of square miles of land comprising this valley lies a sheet of water under such a head of pressure that when pierced by the drill of the engineer, a fountain of water rushes out with such force that it rivals the mechanical possibilities of a huge Corliss engine and with sufficient volume to create and sustain lakes and flowing streams. Again it is but natural that the consideration of this volume of water in its possibilities for irrigation purposes should become a problem fraught with the deepest interest, not only to the residents of the James River Valley but also to all interested in the development of the resources of a state

Millet

In the spring of 1897 the Division of Agrostology, U. S. Department of Agriculture sent a collection of Millet seed which it had gathered from seedsmen at several widely distant places throughout the United States, with a request that we co-operate with them by raising, harvesting and carefully noting the characteristics of each of the various samples and reporting to them. This we have done, and we presume that results obtained from the co-operative experiments conducted at this as well as many other stations, will soon be issued in bulletin form from the Department at Washington. Believing that the bulletins from this station reach a large number of the farmers of this state who do not receive the Department publications, we have decided to publish the results of our own experiments, both with the seeds obtained from the Department and from other sources. The purpose of this bulletin is ·to classify the various samples which are being sold under so many different names, and to arrange them in groups; each such group having the characteristics of some well-known, popular variety, regardless of the trade names under which they are being sold, and to show their comparative value for this state. The Millets were all sown on well-prepared land of uniform quality, no manure having been applied for at least five years. The sowing was done on May 21, with a hand garden drill making the rows two feet apart. They were cultivated and hoed during the season and kept free from weeds

Crop Rotation for South Dakota

That some definite system of crop rotation must be adopted by the farmers of this state before they can hope to obtain the best returns from their farms is a proposition that admits of no denial. That no rotation can be devised that will be equally suitable for all the farms of the state is also an unquestionable fact. Each individual farmer will have to work out the details of a rotation for his particular farm. But it is the belief of the writer that much can be done by the Experiment Station in determining some of the general principles involved in the -various problems that farmers will have to solve in this connection. It was with this purpose in mind that the experiments outlined in this Bulletin were begun in the spring of 1897 and ·have been carried on down to the present time. It is to be hoped that the work now so well under way may be continued without interruption for a long term of years, as its value will steadily increase with each succeeding year of its continuance. Six years\u27 records are now on hand, but it is doubtful whether any very definite conclusions can be drawn from the results of so limited a series of experiments. The main purpose of this Bulletin is therefore to call the attention of the farmers of the state to the importance of the problems involved and the methods adopted at this Station to solve them. If we succeed in arousing sufficient interest in the subject among a few of the most intelligent and progressive farmers, so that they will aid us by co-operation, criticism or advice, we will have accomplished our purpose in the publication of this Bulletin and will wait until longer experience and more decisive results warrant us in making more definite and positive statements

Macaroni Wheat

In order that the reader may understand something of the plan and scope of the work in cereal investigation under way at this Station the following statements are made: This Station has been engaged in cereal investigations for a number of years, and in the spring of 1901 the United States Department of Agriculture entered into an agreement with the Station to enlarge the scope of the work through co-operation with the Department. In this co-operative agreement Dr. A. F. Woods of the Bureau of Plant Industry was given general supervision of the work for the Department of Agriculture, and the work at this Station was placed in charge of Prof. E. C. Chilcott, Agriculturist of this Station. Professor Chilcott was commissioned collaborator by the Secretary of Agriculture, and Mr. John S. Cole, a senior student of the College, was appointed special agent of the Department of Agriculture and detailed to assist Professor Chilcott in the co-operative work at Brookings. Mr. Sylvester Balz was assigned to a similar position at Mellette, where a duplicate set of experiments was carried on in order to ascertain whether the conditions in these somewhat widely separate parts of the state would materially affect the results obtained. Mr. M. A. Carleton, Cerealist of the United States Department of Agriculture, has attended to the details of this co-operative work on the part of the Department at Washington. Under this co-operative organization, in addition to the independent work being carried on by this Station, hundreds of varieties o:f wheat, oats, speltz, barley and rye have been grown under a carefully planned and executed system. Much valuable information has already been obtained and more is confidently expected from experiments not yet concluded

Report of Investigations at The Highmore Station for 1903

The work of testing grasses and other forage plants at Highmore during the season of 1903 was carried on by Mr. Sylvester Balz under the direction of Professor De Alton Saunders. The following report of the work has been prepared from the data furnished by Mr. Balz at the close of the season\u27s work. Professor Saunders severed his connection with the South Dakota Agricultural College in October, 1903. There being more land at the station than necessary to carry on the tests of forage plants, a part of it was used by Professor Chilcott and if Mr.Cole in testing macaroni wheats and other grains in co-operation with the United States Department of Agriculture. Their report forms the latter part of this bulletin

Feeding Wheat to Hogs

This experiment was undertaken to answer the following questions:1. Can the farmers of this state realize more from their wheat by feeding it to hogs, then by selling at present prices of for wheats and hogs?2. Can wheat be profitability fed without some other food to form a balanced ration?3. Will it pay to grind wheat as food for hogs?4. How does wheat compare with corn and peas as food for hogs?5. How does the quality of pork made from wheat compare with that made from corn, peas, and mixed food?6. How does the average daily gain of hogs fed on an exclusive diet of wheat, corn peas; compare with that of hogs fed on mixed fods?7.When should fattening begin and how long should it continu

I. Pasture and Forage Plants for South Dakota II. Feeding Dairy Cows III. Flies IV. The Artesian Waters of South Dakota V. Some Destructive Insects VI. Elements of Prairie Horticulture

I. Pastuire and Forage Plants for South Dakota II. Feeding Dairy Cows III. Flies IV. The Artesian Waters of South Dakota V. Some Destructive Insects VI. Elements of Prairie Horticultur

Moisture Investigations for 1897

All that portion of South Dakota lying east of the Missouri river is covered by what is known as drift or boulder clay, except a few small isolated areas. This formation varies in depth from a few feet to two or three hundred feet, and when the entire mass of the deposit is considered it is of a remarkably uniform character throughout the state. Its chief characteristic is a light yellow color with numerous small, calcareous masses and more or less boulders, stones and pebbles in the subsoil, gradually merging into a dark brown or black loam on the surface. This dark color is due to the presence of decaying vegetable matter and the action of the elements. The sorting powers of running water, moving ice and blowing winds have caused quite a variation in the appearance of the surface in various localities throughout the state. This difference is, however, largely superficial and, in most instances, does not extend to any considerable depth. Wherever the surface soil shows any marked deviation from the normal of the state, it is not difficult to find a cause for that deviation in forces that have been at work since the time when the whole area was covered with the ice sheet. For instance, that portion of the state included within Spink, Brown, and portions of Beadle counties was once, since the glacial period, occupied by a shallow lake bed. Into this lake were brought the washings of the surrounding hills. The wave action in the lake affected a separation of the coarser from the finer particles, depositing the fine lay and silt over the bottom of the lake in a nearly level, uniform layer, while much of the larger, heavier portion remained near the margin and formed sandy beaches. The remains of these beaches are easily seen in the character of the soil in the western part of Brown county, the central portion of Beagle county, and along the foot of the hills, both on the east and on the west side of this old lake bed