VARIETIES OF OATS 



287 



X 



The Ohio Station, which has tested seventy-one varieties for 

 ten years, has divided these varieties into four groups: (t) Wei 

 come group, with open panicle, coarse straw and 

 short, plump grain, includes twenty-one varieties ; 

 (2) Wide Awake group, grain longer and more 

 pointed, requiring slightly longer season, includes 

 twenty-three varieties ; (3) Seizure group, panicle 

 one-sided, stiff straw, still longer season, includes 

 thirteen varieties ; (4) Mixed group, in which 

 varieties are placed not clearly belonging in any 

 of the above groups. 



386. Value of Different Types and Varieties. — 

 Carleton states that side oats are usually white or 

 black ; that white and black varieties of any type 

 are usually found in northern regions ; that red 

 varieties usually, and gray varieties almost en- 

 tirely, are grown as winter oats.^ Experiments 

 Beem to indicate that there is no material differ- 

 ence in yield between varieties with open and 

 closed panicles, between varieties of different 

 colored grains, or between varieties having short, 

 plump grains, and those having long, slender 

 grains, and consequently between varieties of 

 different weight per bushel. In America there are more early 

 maturing varieties wdth short, plump, white grains and open 

 panicles than any other kind ; and at the Ohio Station and at 

 the Ontario Agricultural College ranked rather better than 

 other types.^ 



While it cannot, perhaps, be demonstrated that early maturing 

 varieties are more prolific than late maturing varieties, they have 

 the advantage in that their growth and maturity are during the 



Variety with closed 

 or one-sided pan- 

 icle. 



1 Rpt. Kan. St. Bd. Agr., Quar. ending ^larch i, 1904, p. ig. 



2 Ohio Eul 138 (1903), p. 45, and Ont. Agr. Col. and Expt. Farms Rpt. 1S97, 



p. 154. 



