OATS 171 



greatness, and give it the least attention and care 

 of any of our leading crops. On the average farm, 

 where it annually fills its place so completely, so 

 fully and so well, it is talked about, discussed and 

 considered least of any of the crops on the farm. 

 The crop does its work so constantly, so evenly 

 and so uncomplainingly of either soil, fertilizer or 

 season that we have come to think of it as stead- 

 fast and sure. This is, after all, a compliment 

 rather than a slight, but it is not a very apprecia- 

 tive attitude to assume to so constant a friend. 



Who talks about soil best adapted to oats? What 

 fertilizer pays court to it? Who searches for its 

 ancestry or shows the advantage of superior 

 breeding? What friend enters the list to cham- 

 pion it? These things are not said complainingly, 

 rather simply to call attention to one of our most 

 meritorious and leading crops, that its culture, too, 

 may be studied and the best skill given to its im- 

 provement. 



While oats may be grown on any type of soil 

 poor clay, sandy loam, peaty land the crop is at 

 its best when favored with a well-drained fertile 

 clay or clay loam. The choicest fields, as a rule, 

 go to corn or wheat or cotton and the less desirable 

 are turned over to oats, the owner knowing in his 

 own mind that they will give a good account of 

 their occupancy. 



The Seed Bed and Seeding. Good preparation of 

 the soil pays for oats as it pays for other crops. 

 The seed bed should be prepared by plowing rather 

 than by disking and harrowing. This poor prepara- 

 tion often explains the poor stands and light grain 

 and straw we often see. Heavy lands in the North 

 may be plowed with profit in the fall, and in the 



