OATS 155 



143. Soils. Oats have a wide adaptation to soils, 

 and fair yields may be secured on almost all types of soils 

 in cool, moist climates. They have a wider adaptation to 

 soils than almost any of the other cereals. Of course 

 much better yields are secured from fertile than from poor 

 soils, but compared with other cereals good yields may be 

 secured on relatively poor lands. Oats draw rather more 

 heavily upon the moisture of a soil than any of the other 

 cereals, and soils that retain moisture well are best adapted 

 to their culture. On very fertile soils they are likely to 

 produce a rank growth of stem, and quite frequently, 

 under such conditions, lodge badly and produce corre- 

 spondingly more straw than grain. This tendency to 

 lodge is a serious objection to their use as a nurse crop 

 for clovers or grasses, since the latter may be smoth- 

 ered out by them. On fertile soils the grower should 

 select a short strawed, early variety which may be har- 

 vested before summer storms lay it low. 



METHODS OF CULTURE 



144. Place in the rotation. In the corn belt states 

 oats usually follow corn in the rotation. A common 

 four-year rotation is corn, oats, wheat, and hay. When 

 wheat is omitted, corn, oats, and hay form the usual 

 sequence. The rotation may be extended to cover four 

 years by allowing the meadow to stand for two years. 

 In the South, where winter oats are principally grown and 

 cotton enters into the rotation, a common sequence is 

 cotton, corn, and oats. Frequently a catch crop of cowpeas 

 or bur clover is used between the corn and oats, and also 

 between oats and cotton. When the oat is the only small 

 grain grown in the rotation, it is frequently used, espe- 

 cially in the corn belt states, as a nurse crop for clovers 



