OATS 81 



takes on a lively motion. The addition of oiled grains checks this mo- 

 tion, while the addition of unoiled grain has no effect. 



7. Odor. — The normal odor or smell of grain diminishes in intensity 

 with age. Unpleasant, close, damp, moldy or musty odors indicate 

 various forms of decomposition. These odors are intensified by heating 

 or warming the grain by holding in the hand, breathing upon it, etc. 

 Such grain also has a bitter, rancid taste. Fraudulent attempts are some- 

 times made to destroy or disguise these odors by treating with powdered 

 aromatic herbs (marjoram) and mixing with fresh and more aromatic 

 grain (oats). 



Among the true grains we have oats, barley, wheat, corn, spelt, rice 

 and millet. Buckwheat resembles the grains in chemical composition. 



a. Oats 



Oats are extensively cultivated in Germany, Russia, Sweden, Austria, 

 Hungary, Rumania and North America. In addition to the common 

 panicled oats, Avena sativa, a number of varieties of an oriental species, 

 A. orientalis, are cultivated in Southern Europe and experimentally in 

 the United States (white and black Tartarian oats, Hungarian oats, etc.). 

 The panicle in this oriental species is developed unilaterally, not symmet- 

 rically as in the common oat, whence the German name, "flag oats," from 

 its fancied resemblance, when in bloom, to a flag. Naked oats, A. nuda, 

 are of no economic importance in Germany. A. strigosa, sand or purr 

 oats (Fig. 36), which grow wild on poor, sandy soils in northern Ger- 

 many, and A. fatua, wind or wild oats, with small, slim, yellowish gray 

 grains, are of no great value as feeding material. 



A. fatua resembles the common oat, occurs in Wisconsin and Minne- 

 sota and is a naturalized European species. These wild species of oats 

 are sometimes mixed with the cultivated species. They have coarse hulls 

 and a large twisted and bent awn 2 inches long. The large, dark glumes 

 have green tips and yellowish red or brownish hairs. The hilum or 

 scar, where the seed was attached to the stem, is dark colored, elevated, 

 and resembles a horse's hoof in form, whence the name, horsefoot oats. 



Avena hrevis is another common wild species of Europe with seeds 

 still smaller than those just mentioned and equally indifferent in value. 

 There are early and late varieties of Avena sativa with many subvarieties 

 of each. In Germany these various varieties are usually known by the 

 name of the region or country where they originated as American, 

 Canadian, Pomeranian, Silesian, Scotch Longfellow, etc. (A similar 

 custom of naming prevails in the United States. — Translator.) 



The individual oat grain has a flat ventral and an arched dorsal sur- 

 face. It is inclosed by an outer, hard, strawlike glume and an inner 

 covering of finer texture, also a glume. The latter is attached at its 

 base to the lower border of the fruit or grain. Each spikelet in the oat 

 panicle usually contains two grains, the lower main grain, which is the 

 larger and more valuable (size 12 to 20 by 2.5 to 3.5 mm.), and recog- 

 nized by the short, stubby stem to which the upper or secondary grain 



