In cases in which the vitality is lower than that, it will he necessary to sow more seed per acre.
There is no question that if care is used in selecting, cleaning and treating the seed, and in the preparation of the soil, oats should grow better in yield and quality from year to year. The ease with which seed can he procured and the lack of knowledge concerning the best methods induces many a farmer to change his seed when by care and industry he might himself produce seed as good as any he buys.
In an effort to teach the young farmers the importance of good seed and the proper methods of selection and grading, many of the agricultural colleges have taken up the study of the grain by the use of score-cards. A thorough understanding and application of all the principles of the score card will enable any one more intelligently to take up the work of improving the oat crop.
Preparation of the seed-bed.— Oats demand cool weather and abundance of moisture, so that the sooner they can be sown in the spring the better. The amount of water taken from the soil by oats exceeds that used by any other of our important crops. King, at the Wisconsin Experiment Sta tion, found that oats removed from the soil 504 pounds of water to each pound of dry matter pro duced. Of course a part of this moisture passes from the leaves of the plant through transpiration, and from the soil by evaporation, but the amount is very great and demonstrates the need of getting the grain into the soil as early in the season as possible, while the moisture is still available.
In cases where the ground has been fall-plowed, the stirring of the soil should begin as early in the spring as it is possible for teams to get on the land. The value of early stirring to form a soil mulch and thus prevent the evaporation of mois ture was well shown at the Wisconsin Station. Professor King used two plots, side by side, both of which were alike at the beginning. On one the hardened or packed crust was allowed to remain. On the other the stirring process was begun as sown as practicable and the soil mulch carefully preserved. It was found that the evaporation of moisture from the unstirred plot was enormous, amounting to 10S tons per acre in seven days or at the rate of thirty tons per day. Nothing could indicate more clearly the short-sightedness of allowing the land to lie with a packed surface be cause a little extra time would be required to keep it in proper condition. The extra labor would be
well repaid by the increase in crop due to the wise conservation of moisture and the destruction of weeds.
While oats will do well after corn with only a surface disking, increased yields will undoubtedly be obtained when the ground is plowed, especially if the soil is naturally very compact. The seed-bed should be in good tilth. Although oats will produce well on poorer grades of soil than any other of the cereals, a careful preparation of the seed-bed will be amply repaid by increased production. The seed bed should be compact, and on rather light soils rolling may be necessary. Should the soil be wet, however, rolling is likely to pack it to the exclusion of proper amounts of oxygen, and even to the point where the young plants will be unable to reach the surface. In all cases rolling should be attended with caution ; and a light dragging afterward to preserve the soil mulch is to be recommended.
Fertilizers.—Oats do best on soils that are not too fertile, and the direct application of fertilizers is generally inadvisable, as it is liable to produce lodging of the grain and consequent loss. When oats are grown in a rotation following corn which has been manured, there is no need of manuring the oats, as enough plant-food will still be availa ble after the corn crop has been removed. On soils too poor to raise good crops of oats, the applica tion of barnyard manure at the rate of ten to twenty-five loads per acre, or of a standard com mercial fertilizer, would put the soil in good condi tion. A standard commercial fertilizer, according to Hunt, is "one that furnishes ten to twenty pounds each of ammonia and potash and thirty to sixty pounds of phosphoric acid. This can be obtained by applying 250 to 500 pounds of a com mercial fertilizer containing 4 per cent of am monia, 12 per cent of available phosphoric acid and 4 per cent of potash." On soils, such as some of those in Iowa, Illinois and other states of the corn belt, and in some of the eastern states, where con tinuous cropping has lowered the fertility, it may be necessary to increase the percentage of nitro gen in the fertilizer. Commercial fertilizers may best be applied with a fertilizer attachment to the grain drill and at the time of sowing the grain.