NINTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART XII 687 
kill all the smut spcrcs. Thoy should now be piled on the floor of the 
granary in long rows and covered with blankets and allowed to remain 
in this condition from ten to twelve hours, then spread them out to dry 
and when thoroughly dry they will be ready for sowing. 
Sow the oats as early in the spring as the ground will work up in good 
condition. This will give them time to ripen before the extreme hot 
weather in July, which is bad for the late oats. They should be sown 
thick enough to prevent stooling; a fact which most farmers do not be- 
lieve in, for they think they should be so^^n thin so they will stool out 
well, and this is the very thing they should guard against. It is just as 
injurious for the oat .plant to stool as it is lor the corn to sucker, and 
the farmers knov/ the result in that case. 
It is hard to give the exact amount to sow per acre as the varieties 
vary in size. The medium or late varieties should be sown at the rate 
of about three bushels per acre, drilled. In case the extra large oats, 
such as the Carton Seed Oats, are used, they should be sown at the rate 
of five bushels per acre, and small or early oats less according to size of 
kernels. Surely if the soil is well prepared, the seed carefully selected, 
cleaned, graded and treated, the great problem of "How to Grow Oats" 
will be nearer completion. 
WHAT THE SHROPSHIRE SHEEP HAS DONE FOR THE AMERICAN 
FARMER. 
HOWAED A. CHANDLER, CHABITOX. 
The Shropshire sheep enjoys the distinction of having been the solid 
rock upon which the foundation was first really begun to make America 
a mutton producing country. It seems nearly as if Providence has 
piloted the breed to this country for improving or "opening up" the same 
as Columbus came first to a country which later grew and improved far 
beyond their greatest ideas. But it was a country which if left un- 
touched would still have been a wilderness in comparison with what it 
is today, but a new country was needed by the people of the world and 
it was discovered. When the Shropshire sheep was first introduced into 
America there were practically no mutton sheep, but they were needed 
and they came. There was a place for them, and had they not been 
introduced the agricultural population of this country would be at a 
great loss. What the Shropshire has done to the sheep industry is 
nearly too vast to comprehend. When it is considered how the favor- 
able results which came from the first Shropshire was a stimulant for 
an expansion of mutton sheep production, it must be granted that the 
Shropshire is a breed of great merit. They have proved profitable from 
the very beginning and the present condition of the mutton industry 
traces to a greater or less extent back to this one breed. Of course, to- 
day there are many mutton breeds but they have come along the path 
previously paved by the Shropshire. It came and made clear the fact 
that mutton sheep were required. Their strong constitution made them 
do well under all farm and climatic conditions, their mutton was of 
