OAT VARIETIES FOR THE CORN" BELT 5 
Description. — Early growth erect; plant early. Culms slender, 
weak, glabrous, sometimes slightly pubescent at the nodes, 60 to 90 
centimeters tall. Sheaths deep green, glabrous ; culm leaves narrow, 
margins glabrous. Peduncle slender, straight, usually well exserted. 
Panicle equilateral, usually erect, short, narrow to midbroad, ovate; 
rachis nodes five to six ; branches short to midlong, usually ascend- 
ing, scabrous. Spikelets few to i umerous, 2-flowered, occasionally 
3-flowered ; kernel slender. Empty glumes 20 to 24 millimeters long, 
5 to 7 millimeters wide, 8 to 9 veined, light green before maturity. 
Lower lemma 15 to 18 millimeters long, glabrous, white to slightly 
grayish white; basal hairs very few or wanting; aw^ns few to 
abundant, straight (nontwisted) to twisted and frequently genicu- 
late, 15 to 35 millimeters long. Upper lemma 10 to 13 millimeters 
long, awnless. Rachilla segment midlong, usually glabrous. 
Fig. 3. — Outline map of the United States, showing distribution of the Kherson oat 
in 1919 
The Albion differs primarily from Kherson, the parent variety, 
in having white lemmas and usually more awns. The straw and 
glumes are of a creamy yellow at maturity. The variety ripens one 
day earlier than Kherson and two days later than Early Champion, 
which was formerly a standard early variety on Iowa farms. A pani- 
cle and spikelets of Albion are shown in Figure 5. 
YIELDS OF ALBION 
EXPERIMENTS AT THE IOWA STATION 
As the white-kerneled Albion was developed primarily as a sub- 
stitute for the yellow Kherson, the two should be compared. Table 2 
shows the average date of sowing, date of ripening, height of plant, 
percentage of lodging, bushel weight, and annual and average yields 
of grain of Albion and Kherson oats at the Iowa Agricultural Ex- 
periment Station for the 13 years from 1910 to 1919, inclusive, and 
