26 SOUTHERN FIELD CROPS 



which lays its eggs in the body of the green-bug, where they hatch 

 and kill the host. 



32. Harvesting and marketing. Oat grains mature 

 from the top of the panicle downward. Most of the grains 

 should change color and be in the late dough stage, or riper, 

 before being harvested for grain. The harvesting of oats 

 is done with the self-binder or the mowing machine, or on 

 small areas of rough land with the grain cradle. 



It is an advantage in threshing if the grain is tied in bundles, as 

 is done by the self-binder or by laborers following the cradler. 



Oats are marketed without any special preparation beyond 

 that of sacking. 



It is customary in some communities for oats to be bound into 

 bundles and shocked, left for a week or more in the shocks, 

 and then stored for several weeks in a stack or barn before being 

 threshed; however, oats are often handled directly from the 

 shock to the threshing machine. Damp or rainy weather during 

 threshing renders this operation slower and more incomplete. 



33. Yields. For the first few years in the twentieth 

 century the world's oat crop averaged approximately 

 3,500,000,000 bushels, of which more than one fourth was 

 produced in the United States, on about 28,000,000 acres. 

 The average for the United States is usually between 30 

 and 35 bushels per acre. This yield is much below that 

 in Germany and Great Britain. 



For oats sown in the fall in the cotton-belt a yield of 

 less than 20 bushels may be regarded as poor ; of 20 to 30 

 bushels as fair; and a good yield is one exceeding 40 

 bushels per acre. 



A medium yield of oat hay is about one ton per acre, 

 which may be greatly increased by the liberal use of nitrate 

 of soda or by sowing seed of hairy vetch or crimson 



