MISCELLANEOUS CROPS. 187 



IX. 



MISCELLANEOUS CROPS. 



AS a general rule it is wise for the farmer to depend for the 

 bulk of his income on those staple crops to which his 

 farm is best adapted. There are, however, other crops, 

 one or more of which may often be grown to advantage, and 

 these will be the subject of consideration in this chapter. 



Oats. While in some parts of the country oats are a 

 staple crop, it is usually found in our best corn growing local- 

 ities that they do not produce a profitable yield with as much 

 certainty as corn and wheat, being liable to damage from 

 drought and rust, and in wet seasons, on account of soft straw, 

 by lodging. In Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, there is produced 

 from four to six times as much corn as oats. I think it might 

 be made a much more profitable crop than now, in some portions 

 of the country that are usually supposed to be south of the oat 

 belt, if more intelligence were shown in their cultivation. 



In all the corn-growing regions with which I am familiar it 

 is the almost universal practice to sow oats on the poorest 

 soil, and manure or fertilizers of any kind are seldom if 

 ever used. Besides this, no other farm crop is usually put in 

 with so little care. I think it will pay farmers to improve their 

 practice and pay more attention to this crop for the following 

 reasons : First, it is an excellent crop in a rotation, enabling the 

 farmer to change from corn to wheat without seeding wheat on 

 corn land, which is considered objectionable by many farmers; 

 second, it is an excellent crop with which to seed land to clover 

 or orchard grass, as the early seeding and mellow seed-bed ren- 

 der a stand more certain than when these are sown with 

 a wheat crop; third, it furnishes a much better food than corn 



