EXPERIMENTS WITH KHERSON AND SIXTY-DAY OATS. 



15 



ItcsultM in Michigan. 



No results of varietal tests of oats at the Michigan station have 

 been published for many years. Such information as is available, 

 however, indicates that midseason and late oats are to be preferred to 

 the Sixty-Day and Kherson for growing in that State. The Worthy 

 and the Success, midseason white varieties developed by the agri- 

 cultural experiment station at East Lansing, are particularly recom- 

 mended. In a recent letter. Prof. Frank A. Spragg, plant breeder 

 of the Michigan station, says: 



We have had a number of strains of Sixty-Day and Kherson at various times in our 

 varietal tests, but have never gotten as good yields as from the midseason and late 

 varieties. Conditions in Michigan are quite different from those in the corn belt, 

 where earliness in oats is desirable in order to enable them to ripen before hot summer 

 weather. Our spring is often late, but when it opens everything comes with a rush, 

 the hot spell usually striking us about July 1 and lasting two or three weeks. This 

 hot weather injures the early oats. The oat that yields best with us is one that is 

 not far enough advanced at this time to be hurt by hot weather and which heads out 

 and ripens early in August immediately after the hot spell. 



Early oats should be of advantage in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, because the 

 season there starts late and rains in August are frequent, interfering with the harvest- 

 ing of the later varieties. The Sixty-Day and Kherson are very unpopular, however, 

 because farmers do not like the small, slender kernels. 



Results in Wisconsin.. 



The results of varietal tests, including the Kherson and Sixty-Day 

 oats, are reported for the years 1905 to 1907, inclusive, by the Wis- 

 consin Agricultural Experiment Station (29). Since 1907 no tabu- 

 lated results on varietal tests with oats have been reported. The 

 annual and average yields of the Kherson and Sixty-Day and of three 

 other varieties of oats grown at the Wisconsin Agricultural Experi- 

 ment Station during the three years from 1905 to 1907, inclusive, are 

 shown in Table VIII. 



Table VIII. — Annual and average yields of the Kherson, Sixty-Day, and three other 

 varieties of oats grown at the Wisconsin Agricultural Experiment Station (at Madi- 

 son) during two or more years in the 3-year period from 1905 to 1907, inclusive. 





Wis- 



consia 



No. 



Yield per acre (bushels). 



Group and variety. 



1905 



1906 



1907 



Average. 





1906 and 

 1907. 



1905 to 

 1907. 



Early yellow: 



Sixty-Day 



Ml 



49 



;u 



2 4 



4S 



G6. s 



78.1 

 60.0 



43.1 

 39.0 



23. S 



■ 28.0 

 33.7 



20.0 

 12.5 



17.5 



53.1 

 46.9 



31.6 

 25.8 



20.7 



57 9 



jvnerson 





Midseason white: 



60.0 

 50.0 



51.2 



41 



Swedish Select 



33 8 



Late white (side): 

 • White Russian. . . . 



30 S 









1 Seed and Plant Introduction No. 12303 and Cereal Investigations No. 165. 



2 Seed and Plant Introduction No. 2788 and Cereal In-v'estigations No. 134. 



