470 



found rather difficult to cure. Curing in the windrow or cock, with 

 as little handling as possible, is desirable in order to retain the leaves 

 and pods on the pea vines. The hay should be cut before many of 

 the pods ripen ; otherwise the peas will shell out in handling and a 

 valuable portion of the crop will be lost. The grain binder may be 

 used in harvesting if the crop is allowed to become nearly ripe be- 

 fore cutting and is partially cured before shocking. A good crop 

 of oats should yield from 2 to 2 a /2 tons of cured hay, while peas and 

 oats together should make from 2^2 to 3 tons. 



Oats alone or in combination with either peas or vetch make an 

 early, nutritious, and heavy-yielding soiling crop. If several seed- 

 ings are made in succession at intervals of a week or two, the crop is 

 in good condition for use over a considerable period. If more is 

 grown than can be used for feeding green, the crop may be allowed 

 to mature and be cut for hay, or it may be used as pasture. Oats 

 furnish abundant pasture for sheep and hogs, which is available 

 quite early in the season. If peas are sown with the oats, the crop 

 should be allowed to make considerable growth before the hogs are 

 turned in on it, as the young pea vines are easily broken off and 

 destroyed. Sheep do less injury in this way and can be turned in 

 on the pasture early in the season. 



Mutton or pork may be very cheaply produced by allowing the 

 peas and oats to ripen and then pasturing off the crop with sheep 

 or hogs. This combination is particularly well liked by sheep, and 

 as they make rapid growth and cheap gains upon it, it should be 

 more generally used. As the crop is pastured off it costs nothing to 

 harvest and the land is enriched, as practically all of the plant food 

 taken from the soil is returned, together with the nitrogen taken 

 from the air by the pea vines. 



Use as a Nurse Crop and as a Cover Crop. Oats are frequently 

 used as a nurse crop for clover and grass, and in some sections for 

 alfalfa. This use is only incidental, however, as the oats are sown 

 primarily for the production of grain, while the position of this 

 crop in the rotation immediately preceding the meadow or pasture 

 crop makes it desirable, and in some cases necessary, to sow grass or 

 clover seed with it. When used as a nurse crop rather less seed 

 should be sown than when not so used, while early harvesting and 

 the growing of early varieties are advisable. A less frequent use of 

 oats is as a cover crop in orchards, to protect the roots of the trees 

 by shading them in late summer and by forming a mulch and hold- 

 ing the snow in winter. The cover crop also serves to check the 

 growth of the trees and to insure thorough ripening of the young 

 wood before cold weather. Canada field peas or vetch make a val- 

 uable addition to oats when used for this purpose. 



GROWING THE CROPS. 



In the production of oats proper climatic and cultural condi- 

 tions are of more importance than the character or even the fer- 

 tility of the soil. Owing to their greater water-holding capacity 

 loam and clay soils usually produce better crops than sandy soils. 

 Sandy land with plenty of plant food and a moderately stiff subsoil 



