OATS 175 



While oat hay contains more dry matter and 

 crude fiber, it is higher in digestible protein, an 

 item of considerable importance. These facts sug- 

 gest that oats may be grown to much greater ex- 

 tent than now as a partial solution to a scarcity of 

 hay in Southern sections of the country. 



Variety to Use. — We have in all nearly 150 va- 

 rieties of oats, and it is quite impossible to say 

 which one is best. The fact is there is no one best 

 any more so than there is a best breed of cattle, 

 or of sheep, or of swine. The variety best for me 

 may not be best for you ; the variety for the South- 

 ern farmer is never very desirable for the Northern 

 farmer. A neighbor said to me a couple of years 

 ago : " I am going to try the new variety of oats 

 this year that is so extensively advertised." 



"For your entire crop?" I asked. 



" Yes, certainly ; if I use these new oats at all I 

 can't bother with some other kind besides." 



I suggested that it might be well to do so. I told 

 him that I had been trying each year in a small way 

 several kinds of oats, and corn, and wheat, and 

 peas, and other crops, and found considerable 

 variation in the results. I suggested that it might 

 be wise to use the kind he had always used, and 

 which I knew was reasonably satisfactory, and try 

 the new oats in a small way, an acre, perhaps. If 

 the new variety proved at home under his soil and 

 climatic conditions, then he could abandon the old 

 kind that had been fairly true and faithful to him ; 

 he would from his acre trial plot have sufficient 

 seed for his entire crop the next year. My neigh- 

 bor followed this plan. The new variety was an 

 utter failure. He has more faith in the old variety 

 now. If he will select his seed with care, as he 



