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Winter-Oats Seeding

ALL over the Southeast and up into the Central States of the Mississippi Valley the winter-oats crop is of steadily increasing importance. Cotton-Belt farmers are finding oats profitable, and northward the crop seems to be growing in favor.

The average yield of winter oats is inexcusably small, for various reasons. Many farmers relegate this crop to their poorest fields, and though oats will make a little something on land that would not produce wheat at all, it is necessary to have good land to produce good oats. The same notion of the ability of oats to stand hardship probably accounts for the fact that the oats land is often carelessly prepared and less fertilizer is used than is thought necessary for wheat. Still another cause of low yields is to be found in poor, smut-infected small-grained seed. Formalin will get rid of the smut, while recleaning will take out most of the chaff and weed seed.

Perhaps the one greatest reason for low yields of oats is too late seeding. On many farms where both oats and wheat are grown it is the practice to leave the oats until all the wheat has been sown. Cotton farmers have imagined that they can handle oats as they would rye and keel) sowing until Christmas. The fact is, oats should always be sown in time to get a good start before cold weather sets in. The oat plant that has made a leaf growth of four or five inches, and has a firm grip on the soil with its roots, is not likely to be heaved out by frost or killed by cold. The very young plant runs considerable risk.

The exact date to sow winter oats depends, of course, upon soil and climate. It varies from early September, or even late August, in the northern part of the Winter-Oats Belt to late October in the lower South. In any case, seeding should be done sufficiently early to give the plants a good hold on the ground before freezing weather comes.

E. E. M.

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