2 
J ournal of Agricultural Research 
Vol. XXX, No. 1 
nated those of A. fatua. It is believed 
that Americans should make a similar 
distinction in name between the wild or 
ancestral form, A. sterilis, and its culti¬ 
vated derivatives. Of the many names 
used, the designation Avena byzantina 
Koch is believed to have priority. 
The literature of the Burt oat is 
reviewed below under three main divi¬ 
sions, namely: (1) Importance and 
distribution; (2) description and clas¬ 
sification; and (3) inheritance of spike- 
let characters in oats. In general the 
literature is discussed in the order of 
its publication. 
LITERATURE ON IMPORTANCE 
It has been shown by Parker (WO) 3 
and Durrell and Parker (30) that cer¬ 
tain strains of Burt oats are highly 
resistant to crown rust (Puccinia coro- 
nata Corda). This character adds to 
the value of the variety, for, as Parker 
has shown (102), crown rust is widely 
distributed in the United States'and 
may cause appreciable losses, particu¬ 
larly in the Southeastern States. The 
investigations of Norton (99), Zavitz 
(159), Reed (109) and Reed, Griffiths, 
and Briggs 4 show that certain strains 
of Burt and Early Ripe, a variety 
probably identical with Burt, are highly 
resistant to loose smut (U . levis (K. 
and S.) Magn.) and to covered smut 
(U. avenae Pers. Jens). 
Burt is one of the earliest maturing 
varieties in the United States. This 
character often enables it to escape 
destructive rust infection and injury 
from drought. 
For many years it has been recog¬ 
nized by those familiar with Burt oats 
that so-called pure-line selections from 
this variety very often do not breed 
true. Norton (99) was one of the first 
to recognize this fact. Parker (101) 
found that the strain of Burt oats used 
in his experiments was not homozygous 
for resistance to crown rust, although 
it was considered a pure line with 
respect to the usually observed ag¬ 
ronomic characters. Several theories 
have been advanced to explain this 
phenomenon, but as yet no explana¬ 
tion based on experimental evidence 
has been offered. 
During the past 20 years a number 
of oat crosses have been made in which 
the Burt oat was used as one of the 
parents. Some of these hybrids have 
been found to be of considerable 
promise. Results of varietal experi¬ 
ments conducted by Warburton, Bur¬ 
nett, and Love (144) at Ames, Iowa, 
Ithaca, N. Y., and certain other sta¬ 
tions show that hybrids of Burt and 
Sixty-Day have given favorable results. 
Stanton (123) states that one of the 
highest-yielding varieties at the Fort 
Hays Branch Station, Hays, Ivans., is 
a hybrid between Burt and Sixty-Day. 
LITERATURE ON DISTRIBUTION 
The distribution of the Burt variety 
in the United States is very wide 
(fig. 1). Probably few oat varieties 
have proved as well adapted over so 
wide a range of conditions. Records 
of varietal experiments conducted at 
experiment stations in nearly all States 
from northern Florida to southern 
New York and from the Atlantic coast 
to the Rocky Mountains and also in 
California show that comparatively 
favorable yields have been obtained 
from Burt oats, or hybrids between 
Burt and other varieties, in most of 
the States in this entire area. 
For the convenience of the reader, 
the extensive literature reviewed is 
grouped geographically as follows: (1) 
General; (2) Southern States; (3) North¬ 
ern States, Canada and Alaska; (4) 
Great Plains States and westward; 
and (5) South Africa and Australia. 
GENERAL LITERATURE 
Carleton (16) states that the early 
Burt is among the earliest varieties 
grown in this country and that it is 
an excellent sort simply because of its 
earliness, especially in districts where 
there is liable to be a large amount 
of rust or where the dry weather sets 
in early. 
Warburton, Burnett, and Love (144) 
present data on oat varietal experi¬ 
ments and on breeding experiments 
with oats, conducted in many different 
States and under widely varying con¬ 
ditions. They report on experiments 
conducted in Illinois, Iowa, New York, 
Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio, Ken¬ 
tucky, and Indiana. At many of the 
stations in these States, Burt or hybrids 
between Burt and other varieties have 
outyielded all others, and at nearly all 
stations the Burt oat ranked compara¬ 
tively high in yield. 
Wheeler (149) includes the Burt 
variety among winter oats, and gives 
the following description: 
Stems half spreading in early growth, many per 
plant, heads like those of Red Rustproof; grains 
bearded, dull yellow, long pointed, with many 
short bushy hairs at the base; the grains hang to¬ 
gether like those of Red Rustproof; ripens fairly 
early. 
3 Reference is made by number (italic) to “Literature cited,” p. 60-64. 
4 G. M.,Reed, Marion A. Griffiths, and Fred N. Briggs, varietal susceptibility of oats to 
loose and covered smuts. U. S. Dept. Agr. Bui. 1275. [In press.] 
