EIGHTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART X. 639 



Another method is that of the gradual acclimation of oats that have 

 already become acclimated to a warmer climate and are capable of re- 

 sisting the rusts, smuts, and blights which so seriously interfere with the 

 yield of oats in a climate adapted to the growth of corn. The Kansas 

 Experiment Station, for example, has found the Texas Red oats and other 

 varieties from Tennessee to be the best yielders in the experiments con- 

 ducted with oats at that station for three years. It further notes that 

 the Texas Red has improved in quality after being under cultivation 

 some years at Manhattan, yielding much better on three-year trials than 

 some of the improved varieties brought from North Dakota and almost 

 as well as Kherson oats brought from the Nebraska Experiment Station. 



Still another method is that of cross-breeding. This method is prac- 

 ticable only at the experiment stations, one object of cross-breeding being 

 to take advantage of the variations produced by that method, and another 

 to secure greater vitality by crossing with wild types. 



We were greatly interested recently in studying samples of improved 

 oats from the Garton plant breeding establishment near Liverpool, Eng- 

 land, and particularly in a type of hulless oats produced by crossing the 

 British oats on a wild Chinese hulless type. Photographs were made of 

 each of the successive crosses. The result was a type of hulless oats 

 practically destitute of the hairs found on all of our common varieties of 

 oats, which give the bitter taste to oat meal made from them. The im- 

 provement made in various grains, and especially in oats, at that estab- 

 lishment furnishes most conclusive proof that our plant breeders by 

 adopting the same methods can produce some very surprising results. 



A still further method of improvement would be the development of 

 winter oats suitable to the latitude of the corn belt. Winter oats are 

 grown successfully in the cotton belt. 



OAT HAY. 



Wallaces' Farmer. 



We are sometimes asked whether, in case there is a short hay crop, it 

 is advisable to use oats for a hay crop. Why not? Oats is a grass and 

 can be used quite as well as timothy. Where a man has no timothy 

 meadow and has plenty of oats, about the best thing he can do is to cut 

 that oats when it is in the dough stage and make it into hay — not in the 

 hard dough stage, but the soft dough, when you can take a grain of oats 

 and mash it between your fingers. 



It should be cured just like any other hay, but it should not be put in 

 the barn. Why? Because if you do j^ou will find by next spring that you 

 have the biggest stock of mice on hand that you have ever had. Put it in 

 the stack, cover it with slough grass or corn fodder, and keep plenty of 

 cats. 



There are other conditions when it is desirable to make oats into hay. 

 For example, if your land is too rich to grow oats, which it is apt to be 

 when you have plenty of stock and haul out the manure; or when the land 

 is naturally rich and the season favorable to lodging, especially when you 



