FOM BETTER CHOPS IN THE SOUTH 43 



shorter in growth than the Ked Rustproof. It is strictly a 

 spring variety and is particularly adapted to the northern area 

 of the Southern states. 



The Gray Winter or Winter Turf varieties have also a gray 

 or light dun-colored chaff, but are quite different from the Burt 

 in being true winter varieties and are also much hardier for 

 fall sowing than the Red Rustproof type. They are, therefore, 

 particularly adapted for fall seeding in the northern area, but 

 are also grown in the southern district. 



Soil— The oat crop is rather exacting on the soil, but at the 

 same time can be grown with good results on poorer soil than 

 most other cereals. However, like all other cereals it requires 



An oat field where cotton onoe irew 



for the best results some kind of clay loam with as much organic 

 matter as ordinarily occurs in any Southern soil. 



Oats in Rotation— A good rotation for oats is to place them 

 after corn, the oats followed by cowpeas the same season, and 

 these followed by cotton the third year, then corn again. In 

 this series, it is common also to plant cowpeas with the corn. 

 There is, therefore, the beneficial effect upon the soil of two 

 leguminous crops in succession. Even in the Cotton Belt the 

 oats following corn is a good plan, for the reason that the latter 

 comes off in time for the fall seeding of oats. When oats are 

 sown in the spring, of course, they could just as well follow a 

 cotton crop. 



In the district comprising Alabama, Mississippi, the western 

 portion of Tennessee, Louisiana, and southern Arkansas, lespe- 

 deza, or Japan clover, has come to be a very important crop, and 



