76 How THE FAKM PAYS. 



gather in it to drag a log along it to crush them and loosen up the 

 soil, the loose soil itself being a barrier. 



Q. In your vicinity what other crops are attacked by the army 

 ivorm, besides wheat ? 



A. It seeins to give preference to oats and grass, corn and root 

 -crops being little injured by it. 



OAT CULTURE. 



Q. How do oats compare with wheat as a profitable crop ? 



A. It is a more profitable crop to me, as a stock raiser, than wheat. 

 My method is to cut my oats while in the milky state, for the purpose 

 of feeding dry in the form of hay. I have grown considerable oats 

 on sod land that had been pastured some years previous. This I con- 

 sider the best land for producing heavy oats, but it does not produce 

 so good a crop of straw. Such land should be broken in the spring, 

 as early as the ground will admit. It should be plowed to a depth 

 of five inches, the sod being turned under at an angle of forty-five 

 degrees. I think, if my soil was a clay, I would plow the sod in 

 the fall. 



Q. Is this plowing not shallower than the usual practice ? 



A. Yes ; and the reason for it is that the land, having been pas- 

 tured for years previous, has accumulated cow, horse and sheep 

 manure, which I want as near the surface as possible; and there is 

 the sod, besides, which is better than all. Oats is a crop that does 

 not root deeply, forming a sort of shallow, tufted root. 



Q. Why do you lay the sod over at an angle of forty-five degrees ? 



A. It then forms an angle or furrow into which the seed, when 

 sown, falls, and works down in the space where the sods lap, and 

 thus gets the benefit of the surface manure as well as of the decaying 

 sod. The seed is sown at the rate of four bushels to the acre, and 

 the land is then thoroughly harrowed and rolled. Oats should be 

 sown as soon as the ground is dry enough to be worked. 



Q. Is there not some danger of the harrow pulling up the sod ? 



A. There would be if it were harrowed crosswise; but the harrow 

 is run lengthwise of the furrow, and in this manner draws the soil 

 into the crevices between the sods without tearing them up, after 

 which we follow with the roller. Of this crop I have taken off 

 sixty- five bushels per acre, weighing thirty-eight pounds per bushel. 

 The seed was imported potato oats. If marketed, the product 

 would have brought fifty cents per bushel. After the oats had 

 been harvested, which was about the middle of July, the ground 



