32 BULLETIN 218, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



Corn ground, either spring plowed or disked, has not produced as 

 good crops of oats as wheat stubble plowed in the fall. The yield 

 from disked sorghum ground has been slightly better than from disked 

 corn ground. 



Summer tillage has a slightly higher average than any other method 

 of preparation for oats. The increase in yield, however, over other 

 methods is small. 



Differences in average yields from different methods have been so 

 small that the cost of production is the determining factor in profits 

 or losses. 



Disked land and listed land, owing to fair average yields and low 

 cost of production, have shown profits. 



Fall plowing, spring plowing, and subsoiling have produced crops 

 just about sufficient to pay for their cost. 



Summer tillage is debited with a loss of $3.81 per acre. 



GARDEN CITY FIELD STATION. 



The work at Garden City, Kans., is on a high upland. The soil is a 

 light silt loam. With the exception of the accumulated humus near 

 the surface, it is practically uniform to a depth of at least 15 feet. 

 The development of roots is limited only to the depth to which water 

 is available and by the physiological character of the crop. The 

 light character of the soil, however, makes it possible to store in each 

 unit of it only a comparatively small proportion of water. This is 

 not entirely overcome by the depth of soil. The results in storing 

 water have been determined largely by the limited quantity available 

 for storage. In no year under any method practiced has the soil been 

 filled with water to as great a depth as it is possible for the crop to 

 develop roots and to use available water. 



During the six years covered by the production of oats at this 

 station, two years have been total failures, one from drought and 

 one from hail. In 1912 and 1914 sufficient grain was produced to 

 offer some encouragement to the growing of this crop. The produc- 

 tion during the other two years was very light. 



The chief value in presenting these records is to show that oats are 

 not well enough adapted to prevailing conditions and yield too poorly 

 to justify their growth on any considerable area. Under such 

 circumstances, oats should give way to crops better adapted to this 

 region. 



The highest average yields of oats have been obtained on summer- 

 tilled land and on fisted land, which produced an average of 12.8 

 bushels per acre. 



None of the yields have been large enough to pay for cost of produc- 

 tion and ; in general, the more expensive the method the greater the 

 loss resulting from its practice. 



