EIGHTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK-PART X. 637 



vested; from three and one-half bushels, 61 bushels, and from four, 65 

 bushels. 



"The third year I purchased four bushels of Big Four oats of a 

 seedsman in Wisconsin, and sowed them on one acre of ground with the 

 result that I harvested 140 bushels in the fall. The year following this 

 experiment, I seeded 13 acres to Big Four oats at the rate of four bushels 

 per acre, and harvested a crop of 80 bushels in the fall. From these and 

 other facts that I have gathered on my own and my brother's farms, I 

 have reached the conclusion that the best results are obtained by sowing 

 three and one-half bushels of well cleaned oats per acre or four bushels 

 of uncleaned seed. I -do not, however, advise any man to sow uncleaned 

 seed; good seed graders and fanning mills can now be obtained at small 

 cost and they will pay for themselves, on the average farm, in a 

 year's time." 



It will be seen from the above that our correspondent, as an average 

 of the first two years' trial, obtained at harvest time per bushel of seed 

 sown, the following yields: 13.5, 15.7, 18 and 16.3 bushels, when the 

 following number of bushels of seed per acre was used: 2i/^, 3, 3% and 

 4. In view of the fact that much of the land in Iowa is getting too rich 

 for profitable oat culture, it would undoubtedly pay our readers to in- 

 vestigate this question of thick and medium heavy seeding on a small 

 scale for themselves. We should be pleased to hear from those who 

 have facts at hand showing how much seed per acre to sow and what 

 effect thin and thick seeding has upon the quality of the straw, as well 

 as upon the yield of grain. 



OATS IN THE CORN BELT. 

 Wallace's Farmer. 



The com belt proper, broadly defined as the corn surplus states, Ohio, 

 Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas and Nebraska, or those portions 

 of the corn surplus states which actually produce a surplus, is not and 

 never will be a first-class oats country for the reason that the climatic 

 requirements of corn and oats are markedly different. Hence it is a 

 common saying among farmers in those states that you cannot expect 

 a bumper crop of corn and a bumper crop of oats in the same season. 



The hot weather which is necessary to produce a bumper crop of corn 

 tends to decrease the crop of oats, while the cool weather required for 

 the development of a first-class crop of oats is fatal to a first-class crop of 

 corn. The land cannot well be too rich for a crop of corn; and, there- 

 fore, the methods which farmers employ to maintain their lands in a 

 very high state of fertility renders a crop of oats following very liable to 

 lodge. 



While this section of the country can never be a first-class oats country, 

 it is exceedingly important to grow the largest amount of oats possible, at 

 least until we are able to substitute to a large extent some other crop 

 such as winter wheat for the oats. How to improve the oats crop under 

 the climatic conditions existing in this territory is therefore one of the 



