16 BULLETIN 823, U. S. DEPARTMBITT OF AGRICULTURE. 



The data presented in Table VIII indicate that the early yeUow 

 varieties, Kherson and Sixty-Day, yielded well at Madison during 

 the three years from 1905 to 1907, inclusive. In this period the 

 Sixty-Day outyielded the Wisconsin Wonder, one of the leading mid- 

 season varieties, by about 17 bushels. This is much more than the 

 normal difference between these varieties, however. The principal 

 objection to the Sixty-Day and the Kherson oats at the Wisconsin 

 station has been their rather weak straw and consequent liability to 

 lodge. They are best adapted to the low and more fertile soils in 

 the southern portion of the State, where they usually ripen in suffi- 

 cient time to escape the most severe attacks of rust. 



No report on experiments with oats has been published by the 

 Wisconsin station since 1908, but in a letter dated December 5, 1917, 

 Mr. B. D. Leith, assistant professor of agronomy at the University of 

 Wisconsin, writes: 



We consider the Kherson oats particularly valuable under certain conditions. As 

 a rule, we do not get as much lodging and rust, quite largely due to its earlier maturity. 

 If it does lodge it fills out better than the Swedish Select when it lodges. 



Under adverse conditions it has been the highest yielding oat in our test plats. In 

 1915 it was harvested before our heavy storms lodged the other oats, and the yields ran 

 above 100 bushels to the acre. In 1917 the yield was one of the best, largely due to 

 the fact that it was not lodged so bac^ly as the other oats, and there was less grain lost 

 in harvesting. In very hot, dry years where oats are usually light the Kherson has' 

 been one of our best yielders. 



We have experimented with both Sixty-Day and Kherson oats. We pedigreed a 

 strain from each and the pedigreed No. 7 selection from the Kherson strain proved a 

 slightly heavier yielder and a little larger kernel than the pedigreed No. 6 from the 

 Sixty-Day strain, so we disseminated the pedigreed No. 7 to the farmers and did not 

 disseminate the pedigreed No. 6. 



Farmers in the sandy regions report that they are well pleased with the pedigreed 

 No. 7 oats. It seems to be better suited to these regions than the midseason oats. 

 I have in my hand a letter from a farmer on clay -loam soil who reports a yield of 80 

 bushels per acre from the pedigreed No. 7 oats last season. He states that it lodged 

 considerably and if he had been able to save all the crop he feels sure that he would 

 have received 100 bushels per acre. The real objection to this oats is that it can not 

 command as high a price on the market as other oats. This man states that he will be 

 obliged to take 3 cents a bushel less than he would for white oats. 



Results in Illinois. 



The Sixty-Day oat has been included in the varietal experiments 

 at the Illinois station at Urbana (7) since 1905. This variety was 

 also grown at De Kalb, in northern Illinois, during the four years 

 from 1911 to 1914, inclusive, and at Fairfield, in southern Illinois, for 

 several years. The Richland (Iowa No. 105), a yellow selection from 

 the Kherson, was added to the tests at Urbana and De Kalb in 1915. 

 The following year the Albion (Iowa No. 103), a white selection from 

 the Kherson, was also grown at these two points. 



