OATS. 269 



For grain the crop should be harvested when the panicles 

 are quite white and the grain is in the hard dough stage. 



The crop is usually cut with a self-binder and reaper, or 

 by hand, and the bundles, 10 to 12 in number, are stocked in 

 shocks, where they are allowed to stand until well dried before 

 being stacked. 



Oat-hay or forage is put on the market in bundles of 5 to 6 

 pounds, or in bales of 200 to 300 pounds each. 



The yield of forage is considered good when two to three 

 tons per acre are obtained, and when grown for grain eight to 

 ten bags are procured. These yields are given for irrigable 

 land ; without irrigation — particularly in the South- West 

 Cape — the yields are naturally much smaller. 



Uses. — In the Union the oat-hay crop is used most exten- 

 sively as a foodstuff for eq nines and as pasturage for sheep. It 

 is also used as human food in the form of oatmeal. The straw, 

 best chaffed, is fed as a roughage to horses, cattle and sheep. 

 The oat grain treated in various ways is used too as a concen- 

 trate for poultry. 



Diseases. — Smut {Ustilago avence and V . levis). — Loose 

 Smut and Covered Smut are prevalent and often serious. They 

 are readily controlled by the formalin treatment described for 

 wheat. 



Eust (Puccinia graminis, coronata and ruhigo-vera). — 

 These are very common and destructive. The use of early 

 maturing varieties and early sowing of the less susceptible 

 varieties are the best means of combating these diseases. 



Spikelet Blight and Blade Bhght are disorders which are 

 sometimes troublesome. The casual organisms have not been 

 identified and no remedy is known. 



Oats are not supposed to be a host of Opioholus graminis, 

 consequently it should take the place of wheat, or should form 

 a crop in rotations w^here meat is affected with Take-all or 

 Vrotpotje. 



REFERENCES : 



" Origin of Cultivated Plants." — De Candolle. 

 " The Small Grains." — Carleton. 

 " Plant Breeding in Scandinavia." — Newman. 

 United States Dept. of Agric., Farmers' Bulletin 420. 

 " Water Requirements of Plants." — United States Dept. of Agric, 

 Bulletin 284. 



