FALI-SOWN OATS IN THE SOUTH ae 
with the fact that plowing is at least three times as expensive as 
disking, the latter practice, apparently, is to be strongly recom- 
mended, especially where oats follow corn or soy beans and the land 
is reasonably free from crop residue and grass, as has been true at 
the Georgia State College of Agriculture. In southern Georgia, on 
the other hand, crops are “‘laid by”’ earlier, grass comes in, and it is 
not always possible to prepare a good seed bed without plowing. 
When plowing is necessary it should be done at as early a date as 
possible, in order to allow time for the seed bed to become settled, 
as a firm seed bed is one of the first essentials for the successful 
production of fall-sown oats. 
PLACE IN ROTATION 
In the northern portion of the Cotton Belt fall-sown oats usually 
follow corn or other cultivated crops. Owing to the fact that cotton 
does not usually mature sufficiently early to turn under the stalks 
in time for sowing winter oats, the practice of sowing this crop in 
the cotton ‘‘middles”’ with a one-horse drill just after the first picking 
of cotton in early October is becoming very common. In order to 
determine the value of this practice, an experiment was begun at the 
Georgia State College of Agriculture in 1919 in which winter oats 
followed corn and cotton, the land being plowed and treated similarly 
in each case. Duplicate plots of one-hundredth acre each of the 
Red Rustproof variety were sown. The annual and average yields 
for the six years 1919, 1920, and 1922 to 1925, inclusive, are “oiven in 
Table 16. In 1921 the grain from these plots was completely de- 
stroyed by fire. In 1924 the crop was lost by winterkilling. 
TaBLE 16.—Yields of winter oats following corn and cotton at the Georgia State 
College of Agriculture, Athens, during the six years 1919, 1920, and 1922 to 
1925, inclusive 
| Acre yields (bushels) 
Previous crop 
1919 | 1920 1922 1923 | 19241 | 1925 | Average 
Dy Tee is ee eee 21.3} 30.0 27.6 | 55. 2 0 | 28.7 | 27.1 
COCR OTe agen Rote, ise BS set 15:5 27.1 43.9 | 46.6 | 0 | 42 | 29.3 
1 No yields were obtained because of winterkilling. 
The average yield for the six years is slightly in fence of the oats 
following cotton, but the yearly variations are so great that from this 
experiment neither method can be recommended over the other. 
More data are needed to warrant conclusions. The results of 
experiments which have been conducted elsewhere indicate lower 
yields than where the land is plowed, and the practicability of the 
method depends on whether the higher yield will be offset by the cost 
of plowing. In general, the factor « determining the place of fall-sown 
oats in the rotation depends on what crop can be removed in time 
to permit the early sowing of the oats. 
FERTILIZERS FOR FALL-SOWN OATS 
Fertilizer experiments with fall-sown oats in Georgia included 
tests of acid phosphate in combination with ammonium sulphate and 
in combination with both ammonium sulphate and muriate of 
