292 THE AMERICAN FARMER. 



OATS. 



THE oat plant is one of the most hardy and thrifty of grains, and is a native of 

 cold climates, although it will adapt itself to a wide range of latitude and a great 

 variety of soils. It, however, succeeds best in the northern part of the temperate 

 zone, being decidedly a plant of that section, but does not reach as far north as barley. It 

 can be grown in a southern latitude where the summers are long and the temperature very 

 warm, but it does not flourish as well in such localities, and is apt to degenerate under such 

 conditions very rapidly. 



As with most of the other cereals, there are many varieties and sub-varieties of oats, the 

 difference in the latter being due mainly to difference in the soil and climate. While new 

 kinds are being frequently introduced, some of which prove very valuable and fully merit the 

 praises they receive from the extensive advertisements given them, others are found by 

 repeated experiments and considerable expense to the farmer, to be failures, as far as their 

 adaptation to general cultivation is concerned. Oats that are imported from Norway and 

 Scotland and a similar latitude, are quite heavy and have a plump kernel, also those from 

 Canada, but if sown in a latitude considerably farther south, the product, with the cultivation 

 they at present receive, soon degenerates to the common local standard in quality. We be 

 lieve this deterioration is mainly due to the indifferent treatment the oat receives in cultiva 

 tion almost everywhere in this country, and that if proper care were exercised in the selection 

 of the seed, and preparations of the soil to receive it, it might be prevented. The grain sown 

 should be the most plump and perfect kernels from a crop cultivated on good soil and unaf 

 fected by disease of any kind, such as rust or smut. We see no reason why oats may not be 

 cultivated here and kept up to their original standard of excellence, or even improved upon, 

 as well as any other crop, when properly treated. The general idea prevalent among farmers 

 is, that oats can grow on almost any soil, and with but little preparation, the poorest land and 

 most indifferent culture being accordingly given them. Were it not a very hardy plant, it would 

 utterly fail under such treatment. With some pains taken in the preparation of the soil, and 

 a suitable supply of manure given, a profitable crop is almost always a certainty. 



This grain has obtained the reputation of being very exhaustive to soils upon which it is 

 grown, which we are inclined to think is unmerited, and that if the soil before sowing received 

 the same amount of fertilizing properties given to many other crops, it would be found to 

 leave that soil after the harvest more fertile than many crops that have not this reputation. 

 It is a strong and vigorous plant, and being such will sometimes smother and too heavily 

 shade smaller and weaker plants that may be grown with it, grass, for instance. 



It is, as has been previously stated, a very good practice, and one adopted by many farm 

 ers, to sow oats with winter wheat where the field lies in an exposed and cold locality. By 

 this means, the oats soon spring up and grow sufficient to give protection to the wheat during 

 the winter, their leaves, wlien killed by the frost, forming a good covering for the wheat crop, 

 and &quot; winter-killing&quot; is prevented, while an earlier start is also secured in the spring. The 

 amount of fertility extracted from the soil by the growth of the oats is returned by furnishing, 

 in this way, a slight dressing to the surface by the decay of their leaves and stalks. 



Oats are cultivated principally in England as provender for horses. In Scotland they are 

 extensively produced, more than half the grain crop of that country consisting of this product. 



The cultivated oat (Avena saliva) is an annual, although the genus contains several peren 

 nial species. It is supposed to be a development of the wild oat (Avena fatua) that is found 

 in Europe, and is regarded as a weed also in California, where it grows wild over extensive 

 tracts of land, and yields a good quality of hay. The wild oat differs from the cultivated 

 variety by having the inner palet and the grain covered with hair, and the outer palet provided 

 with a long awn. Experiments made at the Royal Agricultural College, England, by Prof. 



