New YorK AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 279 
names. It was found in two tests** that the character of oat seeds 
has much to do with the resulting crop. Large seeds germinated 
better, gave earlier and stronger plants and the plants maintained 
their advantage through the season. At harvest, the yield of both 
grain and straw was larger from the large seed, and the grains 
from the small seed were much smaller in size than those from 
large seed. : 
Oats planted at medium depth, one-half to two inches, gave better 
results®’ than those planted deeper or shallower than this. Those 
planted one-fourth inch deep, even though carefully covered with 
fine soil, germinated very poorly and gave weak plants. Surprising 
as it may seem, seedings as deep as seven inches gave better results 
than extremely shallow sowings, the principal effect being delay in 
emergence. The test is taken to indicate that poor results are to 
be expected from broadcasting oats on light soil, especially during 
a dry time, but another experiment*® shows fairly satisfactory re- 
sults from sowing oats on the snow in early spring. The conclusion 
is given that “ there need be no hesitation on the part of the farmer 
to sow either oats or barley in late winter or early spring on ground 
where some fall-sown crop has made a failure.’”’ The better results 
in this case are undoubtedly due to the moist condition of the seed 
bed caused by the snow. Fall-planted oats*® all died before spring, 
though in the south “ winter oats” are commonly grown. 
With oats, also, fertilizer tests were unsatisfactory, none of the 
applications made being profitable. It is noted* that nitrogen in- 
creased the size and deepened the color of the straw and lengthened 
the growing period; while phosphoric acid apparently hastened the 
ripening of the crop. Muck, potash and gypsum were without 
noticeable effect on the appearance of the crops. 
ONIONS. 
Onions have generally been grown only in garden plats at the 
Station; but in many parts of the State they are field crops as 
unquestionably as are potatoes. In order to solve problems con- 
nected with this culture on a large scale, experiments have been 
made on leased fields in Orange county. These tests have included 
LR DiS. tA igiCl aos) ce 0. OcuCISO7 )- 
Rpt. 6:66 (1887). 
* Rpt. 6:69 (1887). 
° Rpt. 6:68 (1887). 
“ Rpt. 7:344-348 (1888). 
