OATS 



OATS 



489 



acre than other varieties grown in the same locali- 

 ties, and have yielded as high as eighty-five 

 bushels per acre in several instances. In Montana, 

 the same oats have yielded over one hundred 

 bushels per acre. These oats would be well suited 

 to any oat-growing section of the United States. 



In a series of trials at the Ontario Experiment 

 Station the Siberian proved to be the best of one 

 hundred varieties, and on Canadian farms yielded 

 an average of eighty or more bushels per acre. 

 The yield of oats per acre is higher in Canada than 

 in the United States, one hundred bushels or more 

 per acre being not uncommon. 



The Sixty-Day oat is rapidly coming into favor 

 in some regions because of its earliness. It matures 

 six to twelve days earlier than the ordinary varie- 

 ties. The straw is short and the kernel slender. 

 Its early-maturing qualities make it valuable in 

 sections where the oats are subject to rust, as it 

 matures before the severe attacks of rust come on. 

 Its short straw also prevents lodging to a large 

 extent. The variety known as Kherson is practi- 

 cally identical with Sixty-Day. 



New varieties in the United States are largely 

 introductions from European countries. To this 

 also is due the larger share of the improvement in 

 the crop, though many iine varieties have been 

 established by careful breeding and selection. 



Oats for the South are discussed for this occasion 

 by H. N. Starnes : "At the North there is a wide 

 varietal range from which to choose, although 

 throughout the south Atlantic and Gulf states the 

 list of available profitable varieties shrinks to a 

 lean half-dozen, or less. This does not mean that 

 all of the northern standard varieties (with the 

 exception of the few above referred to) cannot be 

 grown at the South. In many localities, where 

 climate, soil and special environment chance to be 

 favorable they (or most of them) may be readily 

 grown, some of them very successfully. Yet it 

 may be safely asserted that but two varieties are 

 so vastly superior to all others that they are now 

 grown to the practical exclusion of the others. 

 These varieties are Texas Red Rust-Proof, with its 

 offspring Appier planted almost entirely in the fall, 

 and the Burt for spring planting. 



"The two former are vigorous, robust and pro- 

 ductive with a heavy head. The Burt is of value 

 only because it will always grow tall enough to be 

 cradled or reaped even on thin, poor land. Its head, 

 however, is very light. • Yet even Burt, in common 

 with all other spring oats, must eventually — and 

 probably very soon — be abandoned, since the adop- 

 tion at the South of the 'open furrow' method of 

 seeding will render spring planting no longer neces- 

 sary, and Appier will thus remain practically the 

 only representation of the oat at the South." 



Culture. 



Seed. — In general, the variety is not so impor- 

 tant as the care and selection of the seed after the 

 variety is established. Any variety suitable to the 

 locality can be made to yield well with careful 

 selection and grading of seed. Whatever the 

 variety, it is important that the seed be of the 



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highest grade. High-grade seed consists of plump, 

 heavy grain, free from weed seeds and other foul 

 materials and resistant to fungous diseases. 



The seed should be run through a good fanning 

 mill to remove weed seeds and dirt, then through 

 the mill again, so set that all light oats will 

 be blown over. At the Ohio Experiment Station 

 it was found that when the light oats were blown 

 out in this way and sown, they yielded 3.68 

 bushels of grain and 111 pounds of straw less-per 

 acre than did the heavy grains secured at the same 

 separation. The heavy grains also yielded 1.54 

 bushels more per acre than grain sown ' 



just as it came from the threshing ^, 

 machine. t^ 



Zavitz, of the Ontario Agricultural 

 College, conducted an eleven-year ex- 

 periment to determine the eifect of 

 a constant selection and sowing of 

 heavy-weight, plump grains in con- 

 trast to light-weight grain. He found 

 that at the end of the eleven years 

 the yield from the former was seventy- 

 seven bushels, and from the latter 

 fifty-eight bushels per acre. Professoi 

 Zavitz expressed his belief that the 

 yield of oats could easily be increased 

 15 per cent by careful breeding and 

 selection of the seed. The oat crop of 

 the United States in 1905, in round 

 numbers, was 950,000,000 bushels. An 

 increase of 15 per cent would be 

 142,500,000 bushels. The average price 

 for oats in 1905 was about twenty- 

 seven cents. This would mean an addi- 

 tion of $38,475,000 to the wealtli of 

 the farmers of the United States. 



The seed should be treated for the 

 prevention of smut. In many fields the 

 loss from smut amounts to 40 per cent 

 or more of the crop. The treatment of 

 the seed for smut is more important 

 than farmers as a rule are willing to 

 believe. In the year 1902, by close 

 inspection of many fields in the state 

 and with the cooperation of graduates 

 of the College of Agriculture, it was 

 found that 17 per cent of the crop in 

 Wisconsin was destroyed by smut. The 

 yield of oats in Wisconsin that year 

 was 95,000,000 bushels, which may be 

 considered as only 80 per cent of a full 

 crop. [See below under Diseases.^ 



The seed should be tested as to its 

 vitality or germinating power. A sim- 

 ple form of seed -tester is shown in Fig. 721. 

 Fig. 210 and described on page 141. oat head 

 Another tester is shown in Fig. 391. If affected by 

 the tester is placed where it will be ^""^ " 

 exposed to ordinary room temperature, or 70° to 

 80° Fahr., a good germination of oats should be 

 obtained in three days. Using one hundred seeds 

 to begin with, the number that germinate will 

 represent the percentage of germination, which 

 should be 97 per cent. 



