210 FIELD CROPS 



256. Judging. A number of the agricultural colleges 

 have devised score cards for the use of their classes in judg- 

 ing oats. While these differ in some minor points, they are 

 usually based on the uniformity of the sample; the freedom 

 from other grains, weed seeds, and dirt; the odor, the weight 

 per bushel, and the percentage of hull to kernel. In some 

 cases the germination is taken into account. A good 

 example of score cards of this kind is the one used by the 

 College of Agriculture of the University of Wisconsin. This 

 score card is as follows : 



SCORE CARD FOR OATS 



Trueness to type or breed characteristics 5 points 



Uniformity in size and shape of kernels 10 points 



Color of grain 5 points 



Freedom from mixture with other grains 5 points 



Size of kernel 10 points 



Per cent and nature of weed seed, dirt, and other 



foreign material 15 points 



Odor musty, smutty, sulfur 15 points 



Weight per bushel 10 points 



Percentage of meat to hull 10 points 



Viability 15 points 



Total 100 points 



LABORATORY EXERCISES 



1. If material is available either from the field or from stored 

 samples, let each student write a complete description of the mature 

 oat plant. 



2. Let each student bring in a sample of thrashed oats and care- 

 fully weigh out a portion of it. Then separate the whole grains from 

 the weed seeds, chaff, and broken grains, and weigh each lot and figure 

 the percentage of good seed. Now divide the whole grain into large 

 and small kernels and figure the percentage of large, strong grains which 

 the sample contains. 



3. Take samples of the large and small grains and make a germi- 

 nation test. Study the differences in the growth of the two sets of 

 plants carefully. It might be well also to grow small plats from large 



