Extract from the Vicksburgh, Miss, Daily Commercial, under date of June 9th, 1881. 
■A. WOITIDEE. I IT OA.T CTJLTXjrtE, 
Early last spring Mr. James G. Ferguson, one of tne most practical, prosperous and progressive 
farmeis of Mississippi, and whose well tilled and thorougly appointed farm gladdens the heart of the 
husbandman with its generous and bounteous yield, just beyond the limits of this city, had his attention 
called to-the toilov7ing extract from the catalogue of D. AT. Ferry <£ CoDetroit , Mich. 
Hxuisian Whit ' Oats. -This new variety of oats has already been tested in nearly all portions of the 
country, from Maine to California, and the reports from almost all States in the Union are unanimous 
in its commendation as the heaviest yielder in cultivation. One hundred and fifty-seven pounds of 
clean oats were harvested from a single ounce of seed last season. In nine tenths of the reports the 
yield exceeded five hundred fold increase. 
Being one of those live, wide-awake, men, who never allows an opportunity of profit or improve¬ 
ment in stock-raising or farming to pass him without giving it a fair and intelligent trial, he at once 
dispatched an order for two bushels, through Messrs. C. C. Reynolds & Co. 
The seed came in due time, and on the twenty-third of March were harrowed broadcast on two 
acres of ordinary upland. They came up well, notwithstanding the drougth, grew most luxuriantly^ 
and seemed to revel with delight in the cold snaps of April. Yesterday the Commercial Office was 
favored by a visit from Mr Ferguson, who bore with him a bunch of his Russian and also a bunch of 
common red oats, produced under equally as favorable circumstances, from the character of soil. 
The contrast Is too great to elicit comparison. While the red oats are as good as can generally be 
found on even our best lands, the Russian excels anything of the oat production we ever saw before. 
They even surpass the description given above which Mr. Ferguson assures us. is literally true in every 
particular. The stalks are large and strong, six feet high, with blades two feet In length, and measur- 
ing nearly one inch wide. The heads are from twenty to twenty’-four inches in lengt h and very heavv 
one weighing as much as one dozen of any other variety. These are literal facts, as the specimens now 
this office most amply verify. 
There also appears in a subsequent issue of the same paper, the following: 
Church Hill, Jefferson Co., Miss., July 2, 1881. 
Editor Commercial .- 
>nly one half of what is claimed for the variety of oats of which you speak he true it 
uncertain 1 on < l P1,U A^S I r Ve i lnValU ? bIe V° tho farmers of this section where the corn crop is such’an 
nt h i M i oV it ,™ I cannot avail myself of Mr. Ferguson's invitation to visit his farm to loo! 
to S ™ ?£“»“?. 'J'w ln S 1x5 know more about them I write to ask that you will be kind enough 
to give me the address of Mr. Ferguson (referred ro in your article) that 1 may make some inquiry of 
aT Y- 1 «eighbors Hoping that you will not deem W requ^^rouTle 
some to give it attention, I am Very Respectfully, 1 
F. F. McCARDLE. 
W e> can assure Mr. McCardle and all others like him interested in oat culture, that our account 
°f the Russian variety of oats is a fact, and fell short of the mark instead of overreaching it. We have 
called Mr. Fergusons attention to this communication, and as he has dozens of others of similar im¬ 
port. lie requests us to state that as he only planted two bushels of seed on two acres, he will have 
none tor sale this year as he has already promised to part with more than he well can spare Having 
not yet threshed the product of the two bushels he planted, he cannot state in exactflgures the amount 
yielded, hut is fully confident that the two acres will thresh out from eighty to one hundred bushels. 
1 be land on which the oats were sown was ordinary hill land, and not very rich at that. Mr. Ferguson 
is not given to exaggeration nor enthusiasm on experimental methods of farming. He his one of the 
best and most reliable farmers in Mississippi, and is doing much towards the advancement of our 
agricultural interests by his experiments in both grain and stock. He obtained his seed from Messrs. 
... cyt/ &Co.. Detroit\ Michigan. Ho will however take pleasure in answering all inquiries on 
such matters. His address is J. G. Ferguson, Vicksburg, Miss. 
TESTIMONIALS. 
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effects of the stilus wiud4 so prev^entbe^L ^ 3taU£S <u ' 6 80 stron <f “d “ek that they resist the 
