The remedy.
The practice of the "open furrow" method of seeding, however, has transformed the uncertainty of a fall-sown oat crop into a reasonable surety. It has been exploited in Georgia for some fifteen years, and although it made slow progress at first, now that its advantages are more fully realized it is being rapidly adopted by the public.
Under this system grain may be seeded as late as the last week in November with the assurance of a good stand and of the crop passing the winter uninjured. Throughout the cotton-belt the loss from the "winter-killing" of hand-sown fall oats ranges from one crop in two to one in three, equivalent to an annual average loss of at least 40 per cent. With the "open furrow" method, an annual average loss of 4 per cent would seem to be an excessive estimate. Moreover, the yield is relatively greater, while its additional cost is comparatively moderate.
Details of the "open furrow" method.
The details of the process are as follows :—The corn land of the previous year is well broken and harrowed, preferably in the first or second week in October. The implement at first used for planting was a light, one-horse combination seeder and fertilizer distributer, seeding and at the same time fertilizing only one row at a time. It was provided with a six-inch "shovel" plow point to open the furrow, into which were drilled seed and fertilizer together from separate hoppers and in any desired quantity. The covering was effected by means of a wheel at the rear of the implement.
An "open furrow" machine, however, has recently been devised by which four rows at a time may be seeded in place of one if the oats are exceptionally well cleaned. The machine will doubtless be still further perfected and eventually supersede the original "single row" implement.
The seeds on germination thus occupy the bottom of an open furrow some four inches deep, where the roots find anchorage in permanent moisture. The sides of the furrow are miniature "bluffs" which serve as windbreaks for the tender grain against the cold northwest winds, while the recur ring frosts of winter successively sift the soil into the furrow, almost filling it by harvest time. The rows are run preferably east and west, but their direction is not of serious moment, since the prevailing cold winds of the cotton-belt are from the northwest, and would therefore cross the rows diagonally, even when extending north and south.
By harvest time, which is usually the first week in June or the last week in May, the grain has tillered to such an extent that the rows are barely traceable across the field. Although planting one or even four rows at a time appears to be rather slow work, it is really more expeditious than it seems, while the assurance of securing thereby an otherwise fortuitous crop should more than recon cile the planter to the delay.
With the "open furrow" method liberal fertili zation is advisable on planting and also an addi tional top-dressing of nitrate of soda in early spring.
Adaptation of the method.
Besides oats the process is equally applicable to other small grains, and permits wheat to be sown successfully in the South as late as the middle of December. It also opens up great possibilities for the Northwest along the margin of the belt where fall-sown wheat gives way to spring-sowing. It is possible that the limit of fall-sown wheat may be pushed northward some fifty or seventy-five miles, perhaps one hundred.
Literature.
R. J. Redding, Bulletins Nos. 44 and 72, Georgia Experiment Station and Press Bulletin No. 45 of the same station.