286 FIELD CROPS FOR THE COTTON-BELT 



duced on soils too poor for other crops; (2) on very fertile 

 soils oats lodge more than do the other small grains. While 

 oats are not best suited to extremely fertile soils they, like 

 other crops, will not return the grower a profit on exhausted 

 soils. It should be remembered also that the varieties of 

 oats most commonly grown in the South have short, stiff 

 straw and are not so likely to lodge as northern varieties. 

 Usually any soil that will produce satisfactory yields of 

 corn or cotton will prove quite satisfactory for oats. Suffi- 

 cient fertility to produce a quick growth and early maturity 

 is essential. It is important that the soil have a high water- 

 holding capacity as the water requirements of oats are 

 large. King has shown that the water requirement for the 

 production of a pound of dry matter in oats is 504 pounds 

 as compared with 277 pounds for corn. On soils containing 

 a high percentage of clay oats are more subject to " spewing 

 out" or winter-killing than on sandy soils. 



349. Fertilizers and manures. The direct applica- 

 tion of fertilizers and manures to oats is very uncommon. 

 The belief that fertilizers and manures will cause the oats 

 to lodge or that these materials will pay better when ap- 

 plied to some other crop is almost universal. Unquestion- 

 ably the oat is not adapted to heavy fertilization. But 

 experiments have shown that this crop will respond very 

 profitably to medium or light applications of fertilizers 

 especially when growing on poor soils. If oats follow corn 

 or some other crop that has been well fertilized, the res- 

 idues of these fertilizing materials will usually suffice for 

 the oats. If a good crop of legumes, such as cowpeas, pre- 

 cede the oats, all nitrogenous materials in the oat fertilizer 

 should be eliminated. However, on the average soils of 

 the cotton-belt the most universal need of the oat crop is 

 for nitrogen. As this crop makes its growth during the 



