WHEAT tlH.TI'Iti: 



•JIM 



[f any farmer should doubt the ultimate result of his labour in following 

 these recommendations, let him go to tin- nearest Experiment Farm and, 

 growing in the midst of infested districts, he will sec good clean crops upon 

 Land from which the terror of the wild oat has long since disappeared. 



The Control of the Wild Oat Pest. 



The l«>ss in yield caused by the presence of black or wild oats amongst 

 the wheat crops is yearly increasing. 

 The pest is the more troublesome 

 because the seed lies in the ground 

 without germinating until the wheat is 

 sown, when the favourable tempera- 

 ture and condition of the soil make 

 it sprout and grow with the wheat. 

 In some of the older paddocks the 

 oats come up so thickly that is impos- 

 sible to obtain a profitable crop. 



The prevalence of wild oats may 

 be attributed to two causes — the 

 almost universal use of the combined 

 harvester, and the constant cropping 

 of the land. The combined harvester 

 is almost diabolically devised as a dis- 

 seminator of the seed of the wild oat, 

 and a paddock which is comparatively 

 clean will, in three or four years, be 

 almost unfit to sow with wheat when 

 this means of harvesting is employed. 

 When to this is added constant crop- 

 ping, until the land becomes too dirty to 

 produce wheat, it can be realised how 

 difficult it is to control the pest. 



An additional source of infection is 

 the use of " oaty " feed for working 

 horse-. The hairy coating of the seed 

 enables it to survive the digestive 

 ope rat ions of the horse and the ox, 

 and the pest can thus be spread to 

 land hitherto clean. 



Attempts of various kinds have been 

 made to eradicate the oats, but they 

 are only partially successful. Perhaps 

 the most general practice is to leave 

 the land out for a year, and utilise it 

 for grazing. Usually the land is not 

 worked, however, and the method is 

 practically unsuccessful, as only a few 

 of the seeds germinate. One fair crop 

 of wheat may be obtained in the fol- 

 lowing year, but after that the land 

 has to be rested again. wi i d 0a t >,Ave»a fatua). 



