HOW TO MAKE OATS 
A PAYING CROP 
By 
B. L. Moss 
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Experience has amply proven to me that oats, even 
at present feed oats prices of about 50 cent a bushel, 
can be made one of our most profitable crops. Two 
bushels of oats are certainly equal to one bushel of 
corn in feeding value, and it is easier and less ex- 
pensive to make 50 bushels cats per acre than it is 
to make 25 bushels corn per acre. 
Add to this the further facts that (1) oats are a 
machine-grown and machine-harvested crop, thus a- 
voiding the scarce and high-priced hand labor nec- 
essary in making row crops; (2) oats fit well into a 
live stock program, affording considerable good 
winter grazing and straw for helping to winter ani- 
mals; and (8) oats may be followed the same year 
with another crop, such as lespedeza, ccwpeas, soy 
beans, or even corn. 
PLANT CERTIFIED SEED 
Mixed seed oats, carrying Johnson grass, cheat, 
Darnell grass, dock, and other noxious weeds and 
grasses, are high-priced even if they were given 
free to the farmer-grower. They yield less per 
acre, and often carry bad weeds and grasses that in- 
fest the land and give trouble for years after. Most 
of the Johnson grass in cultivated fields has proba- 
bly come from bad seed oats. 
When you get Mississippi state-certified seed oats 
you get them at only 10 or 15 cents more per bushel 
than ordinary seed oats, and you are certain of mak- 
ing not only better yields per acre, but you can plant 
them with the assurance that you are not getting 
your fields infested with noxious weeds and grasses. 
If your acreage is large enough to justify it, say 50 
to 75 acres or more, an oat drill for seeding your 
crop is one of the best investments you can make. 
I use a 7-foot drill, with fertilizer attachment. With 
this and a tractor, we seed 15 to 20 acres a day, and 
do the job much more uniformly and evenly than is 
possible by hand. Eight to 12 pecks seed per acre 
should be planted, with my personal preference be- 
ing toward rather thick seeding. Last season I put 
down 11 pecks per acre, with excellent results. 
SELECTING A VARIETY 
In general, oats for the Central South may be divid- 
ed into two main groups, - early maturing and late 
maturing. Best known among the early oats are 
Fulgrain, Fulghum, and Kanota, all of which ma- 
ture some 10 days earlier than regular late season 
