NUTRITIVE QUALITIES SEED. 173 



The nutritive qualities of oats are less than those of 

 any other grain, taking weight for weight, very rarely 

 exceeding, even in the first quality, 75 per cent. ; while 

 those of wheat, for instance, often exceed 95 per cent. 

 They are used mainly as food for horses in this coun- 

 try, the use for any other purpose being comparatively 

 limited. In France and Germany the practice of baking 

 oats and rye together in loaves as food for horses is 

 said to be gaining ground. 



The quantity of oats required to seed an acre prop- 

 erly is from three to four bushels. Many farmers over- 

 seed, and use from four to six bushels, but without 

 reaping in proportion to what they had sown. 



For the purpose of ascertaining, so far as one experi- 

 ment could throw light upon it, the requisite quantity 

 to seed an acre fully and economically, experiments 

 were instituted at the State Farm, in Massachusetts, in 

 the spring of 1858, and with the following results: 



The oats were sown broadcast, on the 27th and 28th 

 days of April, and harrowed in : 



Lot No. 1 at the rate of five bushels to the acre. 

 2 " " four " " " 

 " 3 " " three " " " 



" 4 " " two " " " 



The lots consisted of an acre and a half each, and 

 were manured with one hundred pounds of plaster of 

 Paris per acre, spread broadcast, and harrowed in, ex- 

 cept a strip of one acre, running across all the lots, 

 which received no plaster. The oats were harvested 

 on the 28th of July, and thrashed on the 2d and 3d days 

 of September. 



The yield of lot number one was forty-two bushels ; 

 of number two, thirty-five bushels and a half; of num- 

 ber three, forty bushels ; of number four, twenty-six 

 and a half bushels. 

 15* 



