1198 



Rural School Leaflet 



Fig. 1. — Side panicle 



Oat grains vary also in shape, certain varieties having long, slender 

 grains while in other varieties the grains are short and plump. There 



are four hundred kinds of oats. How many kinds 

 can you find growing in your neighborhood? 



Parts of grain. — The oat grain can be separated 

 into two , parts, known as the hull and the kernel. 

 The whole is called a grain. The hull has no food 

 value, but the kernel is very nutritious. In making 

 oatmeal the hull is first removed and only the 

 kernel is milled. Oats constitute a valuable food 

 for young growing animals or for horses at hard 

 labor, but they are not used in fattening stock. 



Food value. — The food value of the oat grain 

 depends on the percentage of hull to kernel. About 

 twenty-five per cent of a good oat is hull, but a 

 poor oat grown in a bad season or on poor soil may 

 have as high as forty per cent hull. (Determine 

 the percentage of hull in a sample of oats by first 

 weighing a small sample and then removing the hull and weighing again.) 

 Manner of growth. — Oats usually produce more than one head from 

 a single seed. As the farmers say, the oats " stool," that is, branch 

 at the ground and send up several stems 

 from each seed. When sown thickly, not 

 more than two heads are produced from a 

 seed; but if the seeding is thin and the soil 

 rich, as many as five heads may be produced 

 from a single seed. 



Examine oat plants on various kinds of 

 soil and see how many heads are produced 

 to each seed. 



The oat crop in New York State is so im- 

 portant that the teacher should take oppor- 

 tunity to discuss it whenever interest is 

 shown. A few test questions that can be 

 answered from the foregoing text will 

 probably lead the girls and boys to think 

 about the subject. Place the questions 

 on the blackboard and have the older 

 pupils consult reference books and make 



inquiries of farmers in the neighborhood before answering the questions. 

 Let one of the pupils place on the blackboard drawings from the illus- 

 trations on this page and then find out how many in the class have 



Fig. 2. — True panicle 



