t^HOCKiya OATS 



179 



if the grain is allowed to mature, and the straw will not be of 

 as good quaUty for feed. Grain which is cut with the mower 

 should be handled as Httle as possible to avoid shattering. 

 Oats should not be cut till they have passed the hard dough 

 stage, or the yield will l^e reduced and the grain will be green 

 and shrunken. 

 The best time to 

 cut is just before 

 the heads turn 

 yellow, as the fill- 

 ing of the grain 

 will then be com- 

 pleted in the shock 

 and there will be 

 no loss from shat- 

 tering. Winter 

 oats in the South 

 are harvested in 

 the latter part of 

 J\lay and the first 

 half of June. The 

 harvesting of 

 spring oats is be- 

 gun in Texas and the other Southern states in June, and is 

 completed in the North about September 1. Oat harvest in 

 Illinois and Iowa is in the month of July. 



220. Shocking. Oats cut with the grain binder are usu- 

 ally set up to cure in shocks of ten or twelve bundles. As 

 with other grains, the bundles should be set firmly on the 

 butts and the shocks built well to avoid as much as possible 

 the danger of blowing over in storms. Much of the value 

 of the crop depends on the way it is shocked, for poor shock- 

 ing exposes the grain to the weather and causes it to be 

 greatly damaged in color and quality by hard rains. It 

 really makes little difference whether the long or the round 



Figure 71. — A good shock of oats. 



