76 THE AGRICULTURAL GRASSES OF THE UNITED STATES 



the purpose of fodder, of which it makes a good quality, it has been 

 much employed in California. 



It is stated above ''that the common cultivated oat is believed some- 

 times to degenerate into the wild oat." The following case, described 

 by Mr. J. G. Pickett, of Pickett's Station, Wis., certainly seems to 

 afford evidence to that effect. The circumstance can only be other- 

 wise accounted for by supposing the accidental introduction of the wild 

 oat through seed obtained from some foreign source. It also shows 

 how easily this pest is spread after once being introduced into a field. 

 Mr. Pickett writes as follows : 



Inclosed I send yoii specimens of a plant known in this section as wild oats. The 

 history of the plant is as follows : In the year 1856 Mr. Lucius Hawley, of this town, 

 threshed with a machine about 15 acres of common white oats from the stack, upon 

 the ground where the crop grew. The straw was indifferently piled up, and so re- 

 mained through the winter. In the following spring the straw was set on fire, but 

 being wet w^as but partially burned, and what remained was scattered over about an 

 acre of ground, and, with the balance of the field, was plowed under, and the field 

 sown to spring wheat. At harvest time the threshing ground and the land upon 

 which the partially burned straw had been drawn was found to be completely occu- 

 pied by a crop of oats, and so thick upon the ground as to have completely smothered 

 the wheat. Mr. Hawley, supposing the oats were from those of the former crop, did 

 not examine the grain closely, but cut the wheat and oats with a reaper, at the same 

 time keeping the grains separate as much as possible, and he did not discover until 

 stacking the grain that the oats were not the common oats, but something different 

 from any he had se<m before. The oats ripening early, had shelled upon the reaper, 

 and were carried more or less over the entire field, and a crop of spring wheat again 

 following, the new oats were found scattered over the whole field. This was the first 

 known of this pest here, and up to this time (March, 1882) it has continued to spread 

 over the country by being mixed with seed wheat and oats, and transported from 

 farm to farm by threshing-machines until the damage done can hardly be estimated- 

 It will effectually run out any crop and take entire possession of the soil. Seeding 

 down the land for three or four years will eradicate the grain, and this is the only 

 remedy yet found. This oat is a winter grain and will not germinate and grow until 

 it has laid in or upon the ground over winter and been frozen. I have knov/n a field 

 of 40 acres sown in the spring with clean wheat seed and nothing else, from which 

 was threshed 600 bushels of these oats, and wheat about equaling the amount of seed 

 sown. The oat, while growing, looks precisely like the common oat, but ripens early 

 and shells easily. The kernel, when ripe, is nearly black, and has attached to it a 

 spiral barbed tail, by which it attaches itself to clothing, grain-bags, and to every 

 crevice about a threshing-machine, fanning-raill, or reaper, and will even penetrate 

 the skins of animals. When cleaned the grain weighs from 12 to 18 pounds per 

 bushel, and it is only used by finely grinding the grain for stock, or by cutting, before 

 ripening, for hay, of which it makes a good quality. My own theory of its origin is 

 that by the action of fire and the winter exposure the common oat on the farm of Mr. 

 Hawley changed its variety and nature into this wild winter oat, which is now the 

 worst pest this part of Wisconsin has yet known. 



(Plate 68.) 



AvENA STRIATA. (Wild oat grass.) 



Grows on rocky hills in ^^ew England, Kew York, and northwest- 

 ward. The culms are about 2 feet high, smooth and slender. The 

 leaves are narrow and 4 to 6 inches long ; the panicle is slender, 4 to 5 



