98 PRINCIPLES OF FARM PRACTICE 



of the Pacific Coast region the cost per acre, based upon the 

 estimates for previous years, would range from $12 to 

 $15. The chief items of difference in expense between 

 these regions and those of the Corn Belt are cost of fer- 

 tilizers and the use of the land. 



The rate of sowing, as indicated by careful experiments, 

 ranges from eight to nine pecks per acre on heavy clay soils, 

 and from four to six pecks on light soils. The rate seems to 

 depend largely on the tendency of plants to stool or tiller. 

 Where plants tiller but little, as in heavy soils, more seed is 

 needed. 



Fertilizers. In the older farming regions, such as the 

 Corn Belt, the use of manure and some form of phosphate, 

 usually acid phosphate, is generally recommended by State 

 Agricultural Experiment Stations. It has been estimated 

 that the use of fertilizers for the crop of 1918, by all the 

 wheat growers of Indiana, would have increased the average 

 yield per acre from 19.5 bushels to 25 bushels. Such an 

 increase would have been worth more than $29,000,000 to 

 the farmers of that state. 



OATS 



The map of distribution shows that oats are grown in 

 most states of the Union, but that more than half of the 

 crop is produced in the states of the Corn Belt, with Illinois 

 and Iowa in the lead. The large production in these states 

 may be explained by the common practice of using oats to 

 follow corn in a rotation. 



There are more than 400 varieties of oats. They differ 

 in many ways: in shape of head, which may range from 

 widely spreading to closely compact; in color of grain, which 

 may range from white to black and include red, yellow and 



