158 OATS 



Soils Adapted to Oats. Given a favorable climate, oats do 

 well on all productive soils. However, the oat crop requiring more 

 water than other grain crops, most often suffers from lack of water 

 and appears to be favored by heavy, retentive soils. In fact, many soils 

 too wet for good corn-growing produce excellent oats. However, a 

 poorly drained soil is not better suited for oats than for wheat or 

 barley. Very rich soil is often not suited to oats, as oats lodge 

 readily when the growth is rank. 



Wheat and barley are usually classed as " delicate feeders/' mean- 

 ing that they require easily available fertility, and respond quickly 

 to thorough preparation of the soil and fertilizers. Corn is consid- 

 ered less sensitive to soil conditions, and is sometimes called a 

 "coarse feeder." While oats apparently can not utilize coarse 

 manure so well as corn, they are considered even less sensitive to good 

 preparation and fertilizers. 



While all the cereals do well on a virgin soil it is often true that 

 long after wheat and barley cease to give good crops without fer- 

 tilizers or manure, both corn and oats can be profitably raised. In 

 the older States where oats do well, as New York, wheat-grcwing is 

 largely concentrated on the best soils, while oats are generally grown 

 on all farm land. 



In comparing the relative importance of climate and soil it ap- 

 pears that a favorable climate, namely, sufficient moisture with a 

 slow ripening season, is more important than character of soil. 



Fertilizer and Manure for Oats. On general grain farms or 

 grain and hay farms where oats are grown, fertilizers and manure are 

 ordinarily applied to those crops in the rotation that responds most 

 readily to fertilizing. The fertilizer is adjusted to the rotation as 

 a whole rather than some particular crop. Since the effect of a 

 fertilizer usually lasts more than one year and manure several years, 

 all crops benefit. 



In a typical rotation, as corn, and then wheat, followed by clover 

 and grass for two or more years, the wheat crop is usually the first 

 crop to which fertilizer is applied, while the manure is applied to the 

 sod land to be broken for corn, since corn can utilize coarse manure 

 to good advantage. 



