ROWS. If the plants are not exactly in the 
grain row you are safe in assuming they are 
volunteer plants. 
6. Hard seed in vetch often germinate the 
second year and furnish a troublesome source of 
mixture. Small grain growers must recognize this 
fact and plan their cropping system so as to 
avoid this as far as, possible. 
In the Mississippi and Arkansas delta 
where Red Rust Proof varieties predomi- 
nated for many years, tall black and white 
oats (see picture) also two varieties of the 
cheat family, commonly known as chess 
and darnel, (see picture) appear, not only 
in grain fields but on untilled low lands, 
ditch banks, roadsides and railroad right- 
of-ways. These tall oats and “cheats” are 
the source of much trouble and annoyance. 
The seed are carried by birds or dragged 
into the fields by plow tools or other farm 
machinery and come up in the grain as 
volunteers. The tall black and white oats 
are very hardy and survive extremely cold 
and wet weather much better than the 
varieties of grain now being planted. Chess 
and darnel not only do not freeze or drown 
out, but are very prolific and produce 
thousands of seed from a single grain. 
In all strains of small grain, occasional 
hybrids or off-type plants will show up. 
Our method is to check our increase fields 
each year and remove all such plants, 
whether volunteers, hybrids, or off-type. 
This operation costs from twenty-five 
cents to a couple of dollars per acre, but 
it changes the otherwise ragged and irre- 
gular appearance of a field into one that 
is good to look at. 
We plant most of our grain behind cot- 
ton, therefore the volunteer problem is 
not so great as when following other row 
crops. 
Fulgrain and Victorgrain oats are earlier 
and have a somewhat shorter and stiffer 
straw than other varieties and because of 
short straw are ideally adapted to har- 
vesting with combines. Among these short 
oats the volunteer plants, which are usually 
tall, can be seen more readily than in the 
taller varieties; therefore it is a relatively 
easy matter to rogue them out ahead of 
the combine. In the talled varieties the 
volunteers are not so noticeable. 
Again we urge you to check your fields 
and rogue out all tall and off-type plants 

Plants to left are Chess. Those to right are Darnel. 
These two members of the ‘Cheat’? family survive on 
lands where oats and wheat either freeze or drown out 
They are very prolific, producing thousands of grains from 
a single seed and are spread by birds, wind, or stock, 
from railroad’ right-of-ways, ditch banks, roadsides, and 
infested fields. Chess and Darnel can be eliminated only 
by intensive cultivation when planted in cotton or other 
clean row crops. 
of oats, volunteer plants of wheat, rye, as 
well as all chess and darnel; and last but 
not least be sure to clean your combine 
thoroughly by taking out the shaker and 
removing every grain from the cracks and 
crevices before you begin harvesting. 
Carelessly cleaned grain drills, com- 
bines, threshing machines, and cleaning 
equipment, as well as volunteer plants are 
the chief cause of the fields of mixed grain 
we see all over the southern grain belt. 
InUss. D: A.-Bulletin No. 562, Dr.. 7] R: 
Stanton, agronomist in charge of oat in- 
vestigation, points out that the volunteer 
problem is a big one in the south where 
volunteer oats are not destroyed by freez- 
ing. We suggest you obtain one of these 
bulletins by writing the United States 
Department of Agriculture, Washington. 
DAG: 
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