474 FIELD AND GARDEN PRODUCTS 



stalks and cutting them with a stalk cutter in the fall hastens their 

 decay. 



It is always advisable to sow oats as early in the spring as the 

 land can be worked, but proper preparation should not be sacrificed 

 to gain a little time in getting the seed into the ground. Oats do 

 best when sown in a rather firm seed bed, with 2 to 3 inches of 

 loose, mellow soil on the surface. This can best be secured on corn- 

 stalk land by breaking the stalks, double-disking either by lapping 

 half or cross disking, and thorough harrowing with the spike-tooth 

 harrow. Lapping half with the disk harrow leaves the surface more 

 nearly even than when the field is cross-disked. The disks should 

 be set to run 3 or 4 inches deep. After the seed bed is in good con- 

 dition the seed should be sown and the field again harrowed. 



The land is seldom plowed for oats which follow a cultivated 

 crop. Spring plowing is not usually profitable, as there is little 

 time to allow the subsurface to become compact, and the land is 

 rarely in proper condition to plow before the oats should be sown. 

 Soils which are not likely to blow or run togther can sometimes 

 be plowed in the fall to advantage, particularly if grass seed is to be 

 sown with the oats. A fine, smooth, mellow seed bed can thus be 

 prepared. Fall-plowed land should be double-disked about 3 inches 

 deep before seeding and harrowed both before and after seeding. 



Preparation of the Seed. Seed oats should be carefully 

 screened and graded before sowing. This work is ordinarily done 

 with the fanning mill, the light oats and some of the trash being 

 taken out by a current of air, while the small oats and most of 

 the weed seeds are removed by means of screens. The process 

 should take out one-third or one-fourth of the oats, but if the seed 

 is very light a much larger proportion should be removed by the 

 fans. Many of the small, light oats will not germinate at all, while 

 others produce weak plants, which materially reduce the yield. 

 Screening also greatly reduces the proportion of weed seed, thus 

 preventing the spread of weeds and further favoring the growth of 

 the oat crop. 



Sowing the Seed. One of the greatest essentials in growing oats 

 is to get the seed into the ground early. This crop grows best in cool 

 climates and in cool weather, and is often materially injured by a 

 few hot days when it is near maturity. Frosts or even hard freezes 

 after the seed is sown seldom injure it, so that, as a rule, oats should 

 be sown just as soon as the ground is in condition to work in the 

 spring. In fact, a few farmers in the Northern States are now 

 sowing the ordinary spring varieties of oats in the ^f all, just before 

 the ground freezes. The seed usually does not germinate in the fall, 

 but begins growth with the first warm days of spring. The advan- 

 tages claimed for this practice are that the fall seeding lessens the 

 spring rush of work and that the seed gets an earlier start than u 

 possible with spring seeding. The dangers incident to fall seeding 

 include germination in the fall and subsequent winterkilling, freez- 

 ing after the seed germinates in the spring, and injury from alter- 

 nate freezing and thawing and continued cold, wet weather, while 



