4 BULLETIN 823, IT. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
are a part, is very similar to our upper Mississippi Valley and central 
Great Plains areas. 
The soil of the greater portion of the grain region of Russia and Siberia is well known 
in that country as the "Chernozem" or "black earth. " It is a broad belt of prairie, 
600 to 700 miles in average width, beginning in Hungary and extending northeast- 
ward to the Ural Mountains, and then eastward into Siberia to unknown boundaries. 
On the north and west are "the gray forest lands" and on the south and east are salt 
and alkaline districts and sandy wastes, and finally the Caucasus and Ural Mountains. 
By both chemical and mechanical analyses the soil is shown to be remarkably similar 
to that of our own prairies, also commonly known by the similar term of "black 
loam." The depth is on an average, probably a little greater than that of our 
prairie soil. * * * 
The similarity between the Russian steppes and the Great Plains is fully as great 
in climate as in soil, both regions being emphatically continental and subject to great 
extremes of temperature and moisture. In the greater portions of the two regions the 
winters are long and very severe, while the summers, though short, are intensely hot- 
Other noteworthy features of the climate are (1) the great number of clear days in the 
year, (2) the extreme amount of precipitation during two or three months of the sum- 
mer as compared with that of the remainder of the year, (3) the character of this pre- 
cipitation, falling in quick thunderstorms, as a rule, with very few days of mists or 
fogs,' (4) the excessive heat of midsummer, following intensely cold winters, as already 
mentioned, and (5) the comparatively light snowfall. These features, while common 
to the two regions, are considerably more pronounced for corresponding portions of 
the grain belt in Russia than in the United States. For this reason varieties brought 
from Russia are all the better adapted for cultivation in this country, as they are al- 
ready used to even more rigorous conditions of climate than they will have to endure 
here. The snowfall, as a rule, is less on the Russian steppes than on the Great Plains. 
The rainfall is generally considerably less, and the extremes of temperature a little 
greater. 
DESCRIPTION OF KHERSON AND SIXTY-DAY OATS. 
Botanically, the Kherson and the Sixty-Day oats can not be dis- 
tinguished one from the other. Typical panicles and spikelets of 
these varieties are shown in figure 2. While these so-called varieties 
sometimes differ considerably in yield when grown under the same 
conditions, the difference is often no greater than that between two 
commercial strains of the same variety. Since the varieties are 
identical and the names, therefore, are synonymous, only one de- 
scription is given. 
Kherson, or Sixty-Day. — Early growth erect. Culms slender, stiff, glabrous or 
slightly pubescent at the nodes, 75 to 110 cm. tall. Sheaths deep green, glabrous; 
culm leaves 4 to 6, narrow, fine. Peduncle slender, straight, 30 to 45 cm. long, well 
exserted. Panicle equilateral, short, ovate; rachis nodes 6 to 7 ; branches short, slender, 
ascending, scabrous. Spikelets 25 to 50 or more, usually 2-nowered, sometimes 3- 
flowered. Empty glumes 20 to 22 mm. long, 5.5 to 6.5 mm. wide, usually 9-veined, 
grayish green before maturity. Lower lemma 14.5 to 16.5 mm. long, narrow, glabrous, 
varying from deep yellow to nearly white, the yellow predominating but becoming 
paler in semiarid sections or in dry years; basal hairs few or wanting; awns few or 
wanting, slender, weak, 20 to 25 mm. long. Upper lemma 10.5 to 12 mm. long, slender, 
plump, awnless. 
