FARM CROPS. 131 



environment and on variety, since it varies from 

 twenty to sometimes fifty per cent. The average 

 amount of hull in American grown oats is about thirty 

 per cent. When oats are used for oatmeal, or rolled 

 oats, the manufacturer desires a plump, heavy grain 

 with a thin hull. 



Position of Oats as a Crop. Oats stand second 

 among the cereals of the United States as regards 

 number of bushels produced. They are excelled only 

 by corn. In total acreage or in money value of the 

 grain they take third place among the cereals. As 

 oats do not do well in warm climates, we find that 

 more than three-fourths of all those grown in the 

 United States are produced north of the thirty-eighth 

 parallel. The North Central states lying both east 

 and west of the Mississippi River are the states pro- 

 ducing the great bulk of all the oats grown. 



Classification of Oats. Oats are classified as spring 

 and fall varieties. The fall varieties are grown prin- 

 cipally south of 38 degrees North latitude, although 

 within the past few years there have been developed 

 hardier varieties of this class, until occasionally we 

 now find fall sown oats as far north as Central Ohio 

 or Illinois. Where fall sown oats, usually called 

 " winter oats," can be successfully grown they are pref- 

 erable to spring sown oats. They make an early and 

 vigorous growth, head from a week to ten days earlier 

 than the spring sown grain, ripen earlier and more 

 uniformly and produce grain of better quality and 

 of heavier yield. The Ohio Station* has found that 

 a two years' trial with winter oats showed them to 

 outyield the spring sown sorts by 3.6 bushels of grain, 

 which in turn averaged six pounds heavier per bushel 

 than did the spring oats. 



Oats are farther classified as spreading and side 

 oats. This classification is based wholly on the type 

 of seed head produced. Spreading oats are those 

 with an open panicle, much branched, and with the 



* Circular No. 88. 



