156 FIELD CROP PRODUCTION 



and grasses. Oats are not so good for this purpose as 

 wheat or barley, because they start growth early and grow 

 rapidly, drawing heavily upon the moisture in the soil, 

 thus frequently preventing the grass and clover from 

 getting a good start. Oats, having wider leaves than wheat 

 and barley, are likely to produce too much shade to render 

 them an ideal nurse crop. In fertile soils, they are more 

 likely to lodge and smother out the young plants. An- 

 other reason why oats are not so desirable as wheat and 

 barley in which to seed grasses and clovers is that 

 they do not ripen so early as either of the other two, and 

 are therefore not removed from the field until later in 

 the season, thus retarding the new growth until late in 

 the summer. Many farmers succeed in getting good 

 stands of grasses and clovers in oats, but where this 

 practice is followed, the best results are obtained by 

 using an early variety of oats. 



145. Preparing the seed bed. Perhaps none of the 

 grain crops are seeded with as little preparation of the 

 ground as are oats. This is due in part to the hardiness 

 of the plant and in part to the desire to get the crop in 

 early so as not to delay the planting of other spring crops, 

 such as corn. In many places, oats are seeded on the 

 corn ground without any previous preparation. Some- 

 times they are sown broadcast and covered with a disk 

 while in other cases they are sown with a disk drill. Some 

 farmers follow the practice of breaking up the soil with a 

 disk or spring tooth harrow, and then leveling it with a 

 smoothing harrow before seeding. Still others plow the 

 land and further fit it with the harrow. The best practice 

 to follow will depend largely upon the nature of the soil, 

 and upon the amount of time available for seeding the 

 crop. On some types of soil the increase of yield obtained 



