146 OATS 



extensively raised in the Corn Belt as a crop to rotate with corn. 

 The actual value of oats per acre is not so great as winter wheat, 

 but oats are much more convenient as a crop to follow corn, and the 

 grain and straw are both much needed by the farmers as stock feed. 

 Early History. While wheat and barley appear to have had a 

 very ancient origin, and were cultivated from earliest times, little is 

 apparently known of oats until about the Christian era. It seems to 

 have originated as a cultivated plant in eastern Europe, and its 

 culture remained principally in temperate Europe until the dis- 

 covery of America. Pliny, in the first century, wrote that the Ger- 



FIG. 55. Types of oat grain. From left to right: short, thick grain of black oats; 

 large white oats, variety Big Four; long grain early oats, variety Burt; small grain early 

 oats, variety Kherson. 



mans lived on oatmeal, and it has always been of some importance for 

 human food in Europe, though for many centuries it has been recog- 

 nized as the best of all cereals for horses. 



Classification of Oats. There are at least 400 to 500 varieties 

 of cultivated oats and they may be classed into several natural groups 

 (Figs. 53 to 57). 



Shape of Head. In the spreading type of panicle the head is 

 usually upright and the branches equally distributed on all sides. In 

 side oats or " horsemane " oats the head is usually drooping and the 

 branches on one side (Fig. 53). There may be found all intermedi- 

 ate types between the extreme shapes. 



