100 AGRICULTURE 



Thrashing. Oats may be thrashed from the shock, 

 or stacked and thrashed any time during the fall. A some- 

 what better grade of oats is obtained by stacking and allow- 

 ing the oats to "go through the sweat" before thrashing. 

 The straw is also worth more for feed when the oats have 

 cured in the stack. 



The custom followed by careless farmers of leaving 

 grain standing for weeks in the shock exposed to the 

 weather while waiting for the thrashing machine can not 

 be too strongly condemned. A period of hot wet weather 

 is almost certain to start the oats to molding, or sprouting 

 in the shock. On the other hand, if the weather is very 

 dry, the oats shatter, and many bushels are lost in handling. 

 If the thrashing machine can not be secured as soon as the 

 oats have dried sufficiently to thrash, they should be stacked 

 in well-built, round stacks so constructed as to turn the 

 rains. 



4. Insect Enemies and Diseases 



Oats are, on the whole, subject to fewer diseases, and 

 the prey of fewer insects than wheat. The crop is, there- 

 fore, less liable to total failure from these causes. 



Insect enemies. Chinch-bugs attack oats, as well as 

 wheat, though they usually do much less damage to oats 

 than to wheat. They can be controlled only as already 

 described in the case of wheat. 



In some seasons the army worm has caused much loss 

 to oats, but usually not over extensive areas. There is 

 no satisfactory method known of controlling its ravages. 

 What is known as the green bug, a grain aphis, is one 

 of the most prominent enemies of oats. Grasshoppers occa- 

 sionally consume the greater part of the crop in relatively 

 small areas. 



