2 BULLETIN 1343, U. S. DEPAETMENT OF AGKICULTTJEE 
Table 1. — Oat acreage and production in each of the 12 States comprising the 
spring-oat helt, with totals for that area and for the United States in 19l9 
[Dat 
a compiled from the Thirteenth Census] 
state 
Acres 
Bushels 
State 
Acres 
Bushels 
Iowa _ 
5, 484, 113 
4, 291, 066 
3, 429, 079 
2, 251, 919 
2, 073, 162 
2, 029, 740 
1, 839, 089 
1, 718, 748 
187, 045, 705 
129, 104, 668 
89, 108, 151 
68, 296, 223 
30, 294, 074 
59, 819, 545 
51,091,904 
52, 529, 723 
1, 707, 055 
1, 514, 808 
1, 452, 052 
1, 415, 928 
40, 493, 700 
Illinois 
IMiohigan.. 
36, 956, 425 
Minnesota 
Wisconsin _._ 
Ohio.._ 
Kansas... ^ 
46, 818, 330 
36, 257, 356 
North-Central 
States 
Nebraska 
South Dakota 
29, 206, 759 
37, 991, 002 
827, 815, 804 
Indiana 
United States 
1,055,182,798 
In this bulletin there are discussed four new varieties of oats which 
have achieved a marked success in the Corn Belt and which in 
Iowa and adjacent States where they are adapted have added mate- 
rially to production. These varieties were developed by the Iowa 
Agricultural Experiment Station in cooperation "with the Bureau of 
Plant Industry of the United States Department of Agiiculture. 
The four varieties, in the order of their distribution, are Albion 
(Iowa No. 103), Richland (Iowa No. 105), lowar, and logren 
(Cereal Investigations Xos. T29, 787, 847, and 2024, respectively). 
HISTORY AND METHODS OF OAT EXPERIMENTS 
The experiments to develop improved varieties of oats for Iowa 
and the Corn Belt in general were begun in 1906. At harvest of 
that year 450 individual plant selections were made by the senior 
writer from the fifty-odd varieties and strains then being grown in 
the experimental plats of the Iowa station. With this as a beginning, 
more than 20.000 pure lines have since been isolated and studied, 
aiid 1,544 of these have been of sufficient merit to warrant continua- 
tion in the nursery for at least three years. From the nurseiy, 
150 of the best strains hare been increased and advanced to the plat 
experiments, and of these superior strains four have been found 
so outstanding that they have been increased, named, and distrib- 
uted to farmers. A harvested oat nursery at the Iowa Agricultural 
Experiment Station is shown in Figure 1. 
T .e methods of isolating pure lines and studying them in the 
nuirery hare been described in a previous publication.^ The plat 
experiments in which the merit of the 150 best strains was finally 
determined have been conducted under conditions conforming to 
good farm practice. Judgment as to the value of these strains has 
been based on average yields when grown in comparison with the 
best adapted commercial varieties for a series of A'ears. Harvesting 
oat varieties grown in plats at the Iowa Agricultural Experiment 
Station is shown in Figure 2. 
In order to determine the wider adaptation and performance of 
the improved varieties developed at the Iowa station, it was neces- 
sary that they be grown at various other points throughout the 
State. To make this possible there was organized the loAva Agricul- 
tural Experiment Association, made up of farmers who agreed to 
1 Warburton, C. W., Burnett, L. C, and Love, H. II. Tests of selections from hybrids 
and commercial varieties of oats. U. S. Dept. Agv. Biil. 99, 25 pp., illus. 1914. 
