THE ESSENTIALS OF AGRICULTURE 



212. Cultivation. The soil requirements for oats are not so 

 exacting as for several other of the small grains, notably wheat 

 and barley ; consequently a fair crop may be produced on almost 

 any soil of average fertility. 



The most approved practice is to sow oats as early in the 

 spring as possible. The surface soil should be mellow and fine, 

 but the subsoil should be firm. Probably 90 per cent of the 



oats grown in the corn 

 belt are seeded on corn- 

 stalk land without plow- 

 ing, the surface being 

 double-disked and har- 

 rowed once or twice. 



Oats are usually sown 

 U T AV fV broadcast, but the re- 



I I\ il *t sults ^ re P eatec * tests 



show that seeding with 

 a drill gives larger yields 

 because all of the seed 

 is covered to a uniform 

 depth and prompt ger- 

 mination is insured. 

 The rate of seeding is 

 usually between two and 

 four bushels per acre. 



213. Harvesting. The 

 crop is usually harvested 



FIG. 82. Two types of oat heads 



when the grain is in the 

 hard-dough stage, or at 

 the time when the heads are yellowing rapidly. The grain is 

 shocked as soon as possible after being cut, in order to favor 

 slow curing, which increases the palatability of both the grain 

 and the straw. The crop is usually threshed directly from the 

 shock, though a better quality of grain may be obtained by 

 stacking the oats, and threshing after they have gone through 

 the "sweat" in the stack (Fig. 83). 



