OATS 



OATS 



491 



well as to aid in preserving the best soil mulch. A 

 common harrow or drag with teeth set at an angle 

 of 45° makes a good tool for the purpose. 



Bate of seeding. — The rate per acre at which the 

 seed should be sown will depend largely on the 

 location and the preparation of the seed-bed. Oats 

 stool abundantly and indications are that a major- 

 ity of farmers sow too much seed per acre. Experi- 

 ments at ten experiment stations have led to the 

 recommendation of eight to sixteen pecks to the 

 acre, with an average of ten pecks. When the 

 seed is clean and well graded and the viability is 

 high, ten pecks to the acre should be ample. In 

 the corn-belt, where oats are sown on corn ground 

 with only a surface disking, it is customary to sow 

 four bushels of seed per acre ; and in Scotland as 

 high as seven and one-half bushels per acre are 

 sown. 



Place in the rotation. — Few crops fit into rota- 

 tions in all parts of the country as well as do oats. 

 In the West, where wheat is so largely grown, we 

 find the following rotation : Corn, oats and wheat 

 each one year, and clover and timothy two years. 

 In the central states we have corn and oats, each 

 one year, and clover and timothy two years. This 

 rotation predominates also in the corn-belt, but is 

 there liable to variation, such as corn two years, 

 oats one year, clover one year or clover and timo- 

 thy two years. On many farms in the corn-belt, a 

 three-year rotation of corn, oats and clover is 

 practiced, while some of the more shiftless farmers 

 maintain a two-year rotation of corn and oats. 

 This latter custom in time is certain to deplete the 

 fertility of the land and should be condemned. 



Southern farmers use oats in the rotation with 

 corn, cowpeas and cotton. These are combined in 

 various ways, but the most common method is to 

 sow cowpeas with corn the first year, putting the 

 cowpeas between the rows of corn and harvesting 

 them for the grain. Then fall-sown oats are re- 

 moved in time the next summer to put on a crop 

 of cowpeas which is cut for hay; this crop is 

 followed by cotton one or two years, depending on 

 soil conditions. 



Subsequent care. — After the grain is up, nothing 

 further need be done until harvest time in an ordi- 

 nary season. When, however, moisture is very 

 abundant and the soil fairly fertile it may be 

 advisable to clip back the oats slightly to prevent 

 lodging. This delays the ripening somewhat, but 

 may obviate a heavy loss from lodging. The Iowa 

 Experiment Station found (Bulletin No. 45) that 

 cutting back to the third leaf from the ground 

 when most of the plants had five leaves not only 

 increased the yield eleven and one-half bushels per 

 acre over that which was not clipped, but the 

 grain remained erect after that which was not 

 clipped was badly lodged. The cutting back 

 delayed ripening four days, so that little risk was 

 run in clipping 



Harvesting and threshing. 



The time to harvest oats is when the grain has 

 just passed from the "milk" into what is called 

 the hard "dough" stage, or a very little later. 



When cut at this stage and set in round shocks, 

 covered with cap sheaves, the best quality of grain 

 will be obtained. Weather conditions and the envi- 

 ronment must always be taken into consideration, 

 and if the season is unfavorable and weeds are 

 abundant in the grain it may be more profitable 

 to set the grain in long uncovered shocks, thus 

 giving the bundles a better exposure to wind and 

 sun. Circumstances and the judgment of the farmer 

 must indicate the best treatment for the grain 

 in the interval between cutting and stacking or 

 threshing, as the case may be. 



Many of our farmers still hold to the old regime 

 of stacking all the grain. Oats may be stacked a 

 trifle greener than they may be threshed, as they 

 will stand a pretty severe heating in the stack 

 without injury. If stacked while in proper con- 

 dition there is no question that grain will be of 

 the very finest quality, other things considered. 

 This method has the advantage that the oats can 

 be taken care of at the proper time, and are not in 

 danger of storms and other injurious influences. 



It is rapidly becoming the custom in many parts 

 of the United States to thresh the oats from the 

 field. If the weather is favorable so that the grain 

 becomes thoroughly dried before threshing, this is 

 undoubtedly the more economical method of hand- 

 ling the crop, as it saves time and labor when both 

 are at a premium on the farm. No especial loss in 

 appearance or quality will be suffered unless storms 

 occur during the time while the oats are standing 

 in the shock. In this case there will be a change 

 in color which, while not detrimental so far as 

 feeding is concerned, will injure the market value 

 of the grain. If the storms are severe and the 

 bundles fail to dry out, the grain is liable also to 

 start 'growing, which will injure it from every 

 standpoint. 



There are drawbacks to this system of threshing. 

 Often, to secure the services of machine and crew, 

 the farmer must thresh before his grain is fully dry, 

 or he has to wait too long. In one case, the grain 

 will have to be stirred in the bin or it will heat. 

 In the other, the shocks are exposed to the autumn 

 storms, and the quality of the grain is impaired. 



Precaution should always be taken to see that 

 the threshing machine is cleaned thoroughly, so 

 that there may be no mixture of grain. Especially 

 is this true when barley has been the last grain 

 threshed, as we have not yet been able to find a 

 machine which will make a close separation of oats 

 from barley. 



Oats should yield on an average fifty to seventy 

 bushels per acre in the northern states. In many 

 of the southern states the yields are as low as ten 

 bushels per acre. 



Enemies. 



Diseases. — The principal diseases which affect 

 oats are rust and smut. The smuts of oats are 

 of two forms, — the closed smut {Ustilago Icevis, 

 Jens.), and the loose smut (Ustilago avenm, Jens.). 

 Both forms do serious damage when allowed to 

 develop. The loose smut attacks the entire head of 

 oats and turns it into spores. The closed smut r.ff eets 



