CEREAL EXPERIMENTS AT CHICO. CALIF. 29 
OTHER VARIETIES OF BARLEY. 
There are three types of barley frequently advertised which either 
are unsuited to California conditions or are suited only to special 
locations or specific purposes. These are the Manchuria-Oder- 
brucker, the Horsford, and the Chevalier. The Manchuria-Oder- 
brucker is a type of barley which occupies practically the entire 
barley acreage of the northern Mississippi Valley. It is a six-rowed 
variety with smaller kernels, finer awns, and more lax spikes than 
Coast. It is totally unsuited to the interior valleys of California. 
It does not yield well and shatters badly. 
The Horsford type is the six-rowed hulled hooded form sold 
under many names, such as Beardless and Success. For a hay crop 
the absence of awns is a great advantage. Most of the Horsford 
strains, however, have originated from crosses of the Nepal on the 
Manchuria-Oderbrucker type. The spikes are very brittle and the 
shattering loss exceedingly large. There are a few varieties resulting 
from crosses of Xepal on the ordinary Coast barley. Of these the 
Meloy is the best known. These forms are much less brittle, and if 
a beardless barley is to be grown effort should be made to secure 
seed of the latter type. 
The Chevalier is a late two-rowed hulled awned variety originally 
from England. It is not suited to the interior valleys of California. 
In some of the coastal valleys, such as the Salinas Valley, where a 
long, cool ripening season exists, the Chevalier can be grown with 
good success and an exceptional quality of grain obtained. 
OAT EXPERIMENTS. 
A comparatively small acreage of oats is grown in the Sacramento 
Valley. Warm temperatures, which often occur in the latter part 
of the growing season, are not favorable to the proper development 
of oat plants. They shatter quickly if left standing after maturity 
and therefore are not well adapted to the method of harvesting 
commonly used. The wild oat is a bad weed in cultivated fields and 
is difficult to eradicate. 
Varietal Comparisons. 
Twenty-four varieties of oats, including leading varieties from 
other oat-growing sections, have been tested in the plat experiments 
within the seven-year period from 1910 to 1916, inclusive. The 
annual acre yields of eight of these varieties, with the seven-year 
average yields expressed in percentages of that of the Red Rust- 
proof (California Red) grown in the same years, are given in Table 
12. The average acre yield of Sixty-Day in the seven years was 
39.1 bushels and that of Red Rustproof 38.3 bushels. Winter Turf 
(Dewey) yielded practically the same as Red Rustproof. In the 
nursery varietal experiments the Fulghum oat has been one of the 
best varieties during the past three years. The average acre yield 
of four strains of Fulghum in the two years 1919 and 1920 was 
26.4 bushels and that of four strains of Red Rustproof in the same 
period 22.6 bushels. 
Early-maturing varieties of oats are best adapted to the Sacra- 
mento Valley. They may be grown successfully if sown on clean 
land in the fall and harvested before shattering occurs. Midseason 
and late varieties do not mature properly. 
