208 FIELD CROPS 



252. Oats for Hay and Pasture. If oats are cut before 

 the grain matures, while the leaves are still green and the 

 straw is soft, hay of excellent quality can be made. Field 

 peas are frequently sown with oats when the crop is to be 

 cured into hay or is to be cut green for feeding. Peas add to 

 the yield as well as to the feeding value of the crop. A com- 

 mon rate of seeding is 1 bushel of peas and \Y^ bushels of oats 

 to the acre. Oats and peas may also be used as pasture for 

 stock of all kinds where permanent pasture is lacking. Hogs 

 should not be turned in on this pasture until the peas have 

 made considerable growth, as they will quickly destroy the 

 young plants. Sheep and hogs will make good use of both 

 peas and oats if they are not turned on the crop until it 

 matures. 



IMPROVEMENT OF THE CROP 



253. Opportunities for Improvement. The oat crop has 

 received much less attention from plant breeders and farmers 

 in America than corn and wheat. Some European breeders 

 have devoted their efforts to the improvement of oats and 

 have obtained remarkably good results. Some of the best 

 varieties of oats now grown in the United States, particularly 

 in the northern portion, have been produced by Swedish and 

 English plant breeders. A number of the state experiment 

 stations are now devoting considerable attention to oat 

 breeding, and the development of some excellent high-yield- 

 ing strains is likely to result. 



Among the qualities which are desirable in a good strain 

 of oats, and which breeders aim to combine to a greater or 

 less extent are increased yield, increased size of individual 

 grains, greater weight per bushel, greater proportion of ker- 

 nel to hull, earlier maturity, and greater resistance to lodg- 

 ing and disease. Most of these factors operate in one way 



