SOUTHER]^ FIELD CROPS 



CHAPTER I 



OATS AVENA SATIVA 



, The oat plant is included in the great family of the 

 grasses (Graminew), as are all the grains. It came into 

 use at a later date than did wheat and barley. 



The seed or grain of oats is used chiefly as food for 

 horses. It is also employed, in the form of oatmeal and 

 other cereal dishes, as human food. The oat plant is 

 useful for hay and for pasturage. Its straw is utihzed as 

 food and bedding for animals and as packing material. 



Stbuctuke 



1. Roots. — The oat, as the other grains, is a fibrous- 

 rooted plant, having no tap-root. The crown from which 

 the main stems originate is usually within about an inch 

 of the surface of the ground. 



2. Stems. — The stems of the oat plant originate in the 

 same way as those of the wheat, each as a developed bud 

 or branch, from an older stem. At each underground node 

 of every stem a bud may develop into another stalk and 

 its lower nodes in turn may send out additional shoots. 

 Hence a single plant may bear an indefinite number of 

 stems, the usual number, however, being two to six. A 

 large number is formed by thin sowing and by abundance 

 of moisture and. plant-food, or by hilling up earth around 



B 1 



