XX. 



OATS. 



I. HARVESTING AND USES- 



417. Time and Method of Harvesting.^ — The evidence appears 

 to be that oats may be cut when one-half the leaves are still 

 green and the grain in the early dough, without materially in- 

 juring the chemical composition or the yield of grain, and that 

 the yield and quality of the straw may be increased provided 

 the sheaves are immediately shocked and capped to permit slow 

 curing and ripening.^ (161) Cutting in the hard dough stage 

 and slow curing in round shocks is generally desirable, but 

 when weeds abound or for other reasons rapid curing is neces- 

 sary, long shocks are better. Oats may be cut for hay while 

 the grain is in the milk stage with mowing machine and treated 

 as any other hay crop, or may be cut with self-bind.ng harvester 

 and put in round shocks of six bundles each, with one bundle 

 for a cap. The methods of harvesting, threshing and storing 

 of oats are similar to those of wheat. (162, 167, 168, 169) 

 The Ohio Station found the shrinkage of grain between Sep- 

 tember and March of fifty-five varieties to be less than one per 

 cent, and of a sample of baled oat straw during the same period 

 about six per cent.^ Michigan Station obtained similar results 

 with the grain two years, and a loss of three per cent another 

 year.^ 



418. Uses. — Oats are the chief grain food for horses, and are 

 equally acceptable to and desirable for cattle and sheep, but 



1 111. Bui. 31 ; Kan. Buls. 13, 29, 54. 



2 Ohio Bui. 57 (1894), p. III. 



3 Mich. Bui. 191 (1901), p. 169. 



