CHAPTER VI 

 OATS 



OATS are one of the world's most important grain crops. 

 Though not so old as wheat, oats have been grown in 

 Europe for centuries. They were brought to this country 

 by the early settlers, and are now raised in every state. 

 The United States produces about one-fourth of all the oats 

 grown in the world. Oats are chiefly valuable as a food 

 for animals, yet they are also widely used as a human food. 



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 1. Importance of the Oat Crop 



Our oat crop is slightly more than a billion bushels a 

 year, or a total yield of about one-third more than wheat. 

 Because of the higher price of wheat, however, the value 

 of the oat crop is only about half that of wheat. Among 

 all farm crops, oats rank fifth in value, being surpassed only 

 by corn, cotton, wheat and hay. 



The oat region. The great oat producing region of 

 the United States extends from New York and Pennsyl- 

 vania westward to Nebraska, Kansas and the Dakotas. 

 Each state in this great chain plants more than a million 

 acres of oats annually. 



The following chart shows the thirteen states that pro- 

 duce about four-fifths of all the oats raised in the United 

 States, with the per cent, of the total crop grown in each : 



90 



