136 FUNDAMENTALS OF AGRICULTURE. 



Southern States the yield per acre has averaged less 

 than eighteen bushels during the past forty years. In 

 the Central portion of the United States, which in- 

 cludes Virginia, the southern portion of Ohio, Indiana, 

 Missouri, etc., the yield gradually increases until an 

 average of nearly twenty-five bushels per acre is se- 

 cured. The northern half of Ohio, Indiana, and Illi- 

 nois, together with Iowa, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Michi- 

 gan, and South Dakota, show an average yield of 

 nearly thirty-five bushels per acre, while yields of 60 

 to 75 bushels with an occasional 100 bushels are not un- 

 common with the men who give their soil, seed, and 

 sowing the greatest amount of attention. In Canada 

 the yield per acre is considerably higher than in the 

 United States, since fifty bushels may safely be taken 

 as an average, and a loo-bushel yield is often secured. 

 Enemies of Oats. Oats have practically the same 

 enemies to contend with in the way of weeds and in- 

 sects as do wheat, barley and rye. The weeds most 

 often injurious to the crop are the smart weeds, the 

 milk weeds, and the wild mustards. The insects most 

 commonly found doing damage are the chinch bug, 

 army worm, and sometimes the grasshopper. The 

 fungus diseases most commonly attacking oats are 

 two species of rust and two forms of smut. For the 

 rusts there is no known remedy, but for the smuts, the 

 treatment of the seed grain with formalin solution, is 

 not only an inexpensive but an effective means of pre- 

 vention. 



WHEAT. 



The Plant. In general, the description of the 

 wheat plant differs but little from that of oats. In 

 particular, it is usually of a different shade of green in 

 color, of a hardier character, of slightly taller growth, 

 and of a decidedly harsher or stiffer straw. Its gen- 

 eral character of growth from germination until the 

 heading period differs but little from that of oats, ex- 

 cept that some of the varieties of most of the species 



