30 • The Bulletin. 



the fifteen inches of soil, and at the same time do it with ease, riding instead 

 of walking ; same with the lai'ge smoothing harrow and reversible disk har- 

 row and cultivator. We must use more mule muscle and less man muscle. 

 Mule is cheaper. It takes twenty-one years to grow a man, and you can grow 

 seven mules in that time, allowing three years to each mule. Plow deep, fill 

 your land with vegetable matter, grow from one to three bales of cotton per 

 acre and grow rich. Paint your houses and put water in them, give to the 

 wife and daughter every convenience science and skill has made to the present 

 time, lighten their burdens, be a happy man in the midst of a happy cultured 

 family. 



These are some of the good things rich land and energy directed by a welN 

 cultivated brain will bring into your home. 



OAT CULTUEE. 



By R. J. REDDING, Formerly Director Georgia Experiment Station. 



The value and great importance of the oat as a feed for growing and work- 

 ing animals has never been properly appreciated in the Southern States. It 

 may be well as a matter of comparison to give the digestible nutriments of 

 Indian corn and oats, as follows : 



Proteins. Carbo-hydrates. Fats. 



Indian corn 7.96 66.7 4.3 



Oats 9.20 47.3 4.2 



It will be observed that oats contain 9.20 per cent of proteins, or flesh- 

 formers, against 7.96 per cent in corn. The fat in each is nearly the same, 

 while corn has 66.7 of carbo-hydrates against 47.3 in oats. W. A. Henry, in 

 "Feeds and Feeding," says : "As a result of feeding experiments at Hohe- 

 heim, Wollf concludes that in feeding work-horses 4 pounds of oats are equiva- 

 lent to 3.5 pounds of field beans, and 4 pounds of beans are equal to 3.5 pounds 

 of corn. 



In view of the value of oats as a feed for horses and mules, it may well be 

 asked, why do not the Southern farmers rely more upon oats and less upon 

 corn as a feed for their work animals? One reason for giving corn the prefer- 

 ence is the alleged uncertainty of the oat crop, because of winter killing, if 

 the seeding be done in the fall, and the liability either to rust or injury from 

 di'outh if sown in the spring. But farmers do not give the oat crop a fair 

 chance. I have no doubt that a large proportion of the seed oats that come 

 to us from the States of Missouri, Kansas and other States north and west of 

 us is from spring-sown crops. My observation is, that of a variety of oat 

 that has been sown successively and for many years in the spring, the plants 

 will have in a large degree lost their power to I'esist cold. I consider it of 

 vital importance to sow only seed whose histoi'y is well known, or reliably 

 avouched, on these points. Yet it is a fact that many a farmer, after a spas- 

 modic effort to grow a crop of oats, and with a fair degree of success, will fail 

 to save seed, and will rely on "gitting me some seed oats" when the time to 

 sow has arrived. 



Under these circumstances it is not surprising that the oat crop of the 

 South is so insignificant in area, yield per acre and quality, and that it is not 

 a more popular crop. 



I wish to say just here that, under proper conditions, most of which are 

 under our control, or subject to modifying precautions, the oat crop may be 

 made a more certain crop than corn on the ordinary upland soils of the South. 

 Although not able to present close statements of comparative yields of these 

 two cereals, I will say that my experience of the last sixteen years warrants 

 the statement that, "one year with another," the yield in weight of clean oats 

 will exceed that of corn on the same or similar soil by about 14 per cent. In. 



