OATS 



OATS 



493 



be sound and sweet, free from weed seeds and foul 

 material, and have a good color. Oats of poor 

 color, whether from exposure to storms, molding 

 in the bundle, or overheating in stack oc bin, will 

 not command the best prices. Oats that have been 

 overheated in the bin will be "bin-burned" and 

 discolored. They will be injured not only from the 

 marketing but from the feeding standpoint as well. 

 When oats are badly discolored, elevator men 

 often resort to treatment by sulfur to bleach the 

 grain and improve the appearance. This leaves the 

 grain in worse condition than before and is a 

 reprehensible practice. 



In spite of the magnitude of the oat crop in the 

 United States and the immense increase in produc- 

 tion in the last few years, the exportation of the 

 grain has steadily decreased and the importation 

 increased. It is evident, therefore, that there will 

 be a good market for years to come. It should be 

 the aim of the farmers of the United States, by 

 more scientific growing and care of the crop, not 

 only to supply the hom.e demand but to build up an 

 export trade as well. 



Grades. — Every grain - raising state has its 

 grain-inspection rules and regulations. These are 

 very similar in all the states. The Illinois Grain 

 and Warehouse Commission has adopted the follow- 

 ing grades for oats : 



White oats, Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 4. 



White clipped oats, Nos. 1, 2 and 3. 



Mixed oats, Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 4. 



The rules for grading read as follows : 



" No. 1 white oats shall be white, sound, clean, 

 and reasonably free from other grain. 



" No. 2 white oats shall be seven-eighths white, 

 sweet, reasonably clean and reasonably free from 

 other grains. 



" No. 3 white oats shall be seven-eighths white 

 but not sufficiently sound and clean for No. 2. 



"No 4 white oats shall be seven-eighths white, 

 damp, badly damaged, musty, or for some other 

 cause unfit for No. 3." 



For clipped white oats the same rules apply ex- 

 cept that No. 1 must weigh thirty-six pounds, No. 

 2, thirty -four pounds, and No. 3, twenty -eight 

 pounds to the measured bushel. 



The rules for mixed oats are the same as those 

 for white oats, except that all need not be white. 

 It is very seldom that a carload of oats will grade 

 No. 1. Of the four grades, more of No. 3 are re- 

 ceived in the market than of any other, and there 

 are more of No. 4 than of No. 2. There is no rea- 

 son, except lack of care on the part of the growers, 

 why the major part of the oats shipped should not 

 grade No. 2 at least. Sowing, harvesting and 

 threshing at the proper times will cause many oats 

 that now grade No. 4 to grade No. 2. The market 

 prices generally range from three to five cents 

 higher per bushel for No. 2 than for No. 4 white 

 oats. Thus, a field of eighty acres, producing fifty 

 bushels to the acre, would yield 8,000 bushels of 

 oats. A diiference of five cents a bushel would 

 increase the value of the crop $400, an amount 

 which would pay for the extra care and labor 

 involved and leave a fair profit besides. 



Literature. 



M. A. Carleton, Improvement of the Oat Crop, 

 Fourteenth Annual Report, Kansas State Board of 

 Agriculture, pp. 32-42, published at Topeka, Kan- 

 sas, 1904, by F. D. Coburn, Secretary ; F. L. Sar- 

 gent, Corn Plants : Their Uses and Ways of Life, 

 Houghton, Mifflin & Co., New York (1899), pp. 

 42-72; Thomas Shaw, Grasses and Clovers, Field 

 Roots, Forage and Fodder Plants, Northrup, Bros- 

 lan, Goodwin Company, Minneapolis (1895), pp. 

 94-96 ; Morrow and Hunt, Soils and Crops of the 

 Farm, Howard and Wilson Publishing Company, 

 Chicago (1892) ; Edward Hackel, The True Grasses, 

 translated from the German by P. Lamson Scribner 

 and E. A. Southwick, Henry Holt & Co., New York 

 (1890), pp. 121-125 ; Thomas F. Hunt, The Cereals 

 in America, Orange Judd Company, New York 

 (1904) pp. 280-331 ; Bulletin No. 2, Aberdeen and 

 North of Scotland College of Agriculture, 1905, pp. 

 1-37 ; Ohio Experiment Station, Bulletins Nos. 

 101-138. The reader will need to keep in touch 

 with current Experiment Station literature if he 

 desires to keep abreast the times. 



The "Open Furrow" Method of Seeding Oats. 



Pig. 722. 



By Hugh N. Starnes. 



The oat is yearly becoming more prominent as 

 one of the staple crops for the southern cotton-belt, 

 its position being strongly emphasized by its en- 

 trance as an indispensable factor into the system 

 of "triennial crop rotation" (page 98). In the past, 

 however, oat-culture in the South has been largely 

 influenced and its greater increase checked by two 

 discouraging obstacles : (1) Because of the almost 

 inevitable drought in April and May, spring oats 

 are not successful. On the poor, stiff, red-clay land 

 usually allotted to them, aside from their predis- 

 position to rust under such circumstances, the only 

 variety reaching a height sufficient to cradle or 

 reap is the "Burt," an oat with a lengthy stem but 

 a light head, and therefore unprofitable. "Texas 

 Red Rust-proof," the standard variety, is unfitted 

 for sowing on poor land in the spring by reason of 

 its shorter culm. (2) This necessitates fall-plant- 

 ing ; but it is usually impossible for the average 

 farmer to seed down his fall oat plats in time for 

 them to become sufficiently rooted to withstand the 

 freezes of early winter, for his corn occupies the 

 land that should go in oats and it must be gathered 

 before the area is planted. The late seeding which 

 this entails renders broadcast and hand-sown fall 

 oats a most uncertain crop. A large percentage 

 invariably succumbs to the cold. Difficulty has been 

 experienced in the use of the seed drill. Unfortu- 

 nately, the extremely long awns of the "Texas Red 

 Rust-proof" oat, and of its improved progeny, the 

 "Appier" oat, cause the seed to clog in the delivery 

 tubes and to produce, in consequence, an irregular 

 stand. 



The remedy. 



The practice of the "open furrow" method of 

 seeding, however, has transformed the uncertainty 



