32 BULLETIN 218, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
Corn ground, either spring plowed or disked, has not produced as 
good crops of oats as wheat stubble plowed in the fall. The yield 
from disked sorghum ground has been slightly better than from disked 
corn ground. 
Summer tillage has a slightly higher average than any other method 
of preparation for oats. The increase in yield, however, ovei* other 
methods is small. 
Differences in average yields from different methods have been so 
small that the cost of production is the determining factor in profits 
or losses. 
Disked land and listed land, owing to fair average yields and low 
cost of production, have shown profits. 
Fall plowing, spring plowing, and subsoiling have produced crops 
just about sufficient to pay for their cost. 
Summer tillage is debited with a loss of $3.81 per acre. 
GARDEN CITY FIELD STATION. 
The work at Garden City, Kans., is on a high upland. The soil is a 
light silt loam. With the exception of the accumulated humus near 
the surface, it is practically uniform to a depth of at least 15 feet. 
The development of roots is limited only to the depth to which water 
is available and by the physiological character of the crop. The 
light character of the soil, however, makes it possible to store in each 
unit of it only a comparatively small proportion of water. This is 
not entirely overcome by the depth of soil. The results in storing 
water have been determined largely by the limited quantity available 
for storage. In no year under any method practiced has the soil been 
filled with water to as great a depth as it is possible for the crop to 
develop roots and to use available water. 
During the six years covered by the production of oats at this 
station, two years have been total failures, one from drought and 
one from hail. In 1912 and 1914 sufficient grain was produced to 
offer some encouragement to the growing of this crop. The produc- 
tion during the other two years was very light. 
The chief value in presenting these records is to show .that oats are 
not well enough adapted to prevailing conditions and yield too poorly 
to justify their growth on any considerable area. Under such 
circumstances, oats should give way to crops better adapted to this 
region. 
The highest average yields of oats have been obtained on summer- 
tilled land and on fisted land, which produced an average of 12.8 
bushels per acre. 
None of the yields have been large enough to pay for cost of produc- 
tion and, in general, the more expensive the method the greater the 
loss resulting from its practice. 
