NEBRASKA.

KHERSON OATS.-Introduced into Nebraska in 1897 from the Kherson government of Russia. Panicles spreading; grain light yellow; small, but numerous, and having a very thin hull. The growth is vigorous, but not rank, the culm being very short; leaves very broad. In weight per bushel and yield per acre, this variety has led all others at this station. On account of its habit of growth the oat is reported to be peculiarly adapted to central and western Nebraska. A three years' test indicates that it is earlier, yields better, and, excepting the Texas Red, weighs heavier than any other variety. At this station it has proved itself the superior of Texas Red in yield per acre. It is reported as having remarkable drought-resisting qualities. In an experiment in 1902, in which Swedish Select lodged so badly as to make it impossible to determine yield, Kherson oats, though partly lodged, yielded forty-two bushels per acre. Sixty Day, also from Russia, although not lodged, partly shelled, and yielded only thirty bushels per acre. 1

390. Crossing.-The indications are that oats are nearly always self-fertilized. Artificial cross-fertilization is most successfully accomplished on cool, moist days. No American cross-bred variety of oats has as yet been widely distributed.

1 Neb. Bul. 82 (1904). 2 E. S. R. XIV, p. 216.

391. Influence of Climate Upon Distribution.-Oats are naturally adapted to a cooler climate than wheat, barley or maize. North Dakota Station has shown that oats require less number of days and less heat units than spring wheat or maize. The climate needs to be both cool and moist. Oats grow fairly well in the South, where, while warm, it is moist, but in California,

where both warm and dry, oats do not do as well as wheat or barley. Oats grow to perfection in the cool, moist, insular climate of Scotland, Norway and Sweden, as well as in Canada. Doubtless the pendant spikelets, with large outer glumes, protect the flowers from cold rains. Oats may be grown as far north as 65° N. Lat. both in America and in Norway, and have matured seed in Alaska where the thermometer reached 30° F. or lower every month. in the year.

Barley and oats grown in 1903 at Rampart, Alaska. Latitude 65° N. (O. E. S. Rpt. 1903.) 392. Influence of Climate Upon Dis tribution and Yield.-The relative adaptability of oats compared with other cereals to certain climatic conditions is shown by results of experiments in central Canada and central Ohio. By growing oats, barley, field peas and spring wheat separately and 1 No. Dak. Bul. 47 (1900), p. 704.

in combinations in Canada for six years, it was found that the influence upon yield of grain was in order just given from greatest to least. (404) In Ohio, on the fortieth parallel, the yield of grain for five years when grown continuously on unfertilized soil was as follows:

393. Influence of Climate Upon Physical Properties of Oats.The physical properties of oats seem to be readily affected by climate. The Southern varieties are larger but less dense, less plump, often of a dirty dun color, with long awns, while the Northern grown varieties have shorter, smoother grains, with short awns or awnless. The fact that short, plump, smooth, heavy grains have the largest market value has led to the importation of varieties from Scotland, Norway and Sweden. To what extent these variations are due to selection and to what extent to environment has not been clearly proven; but the Ohio Station has found that during ten years' experiments with seventy-one varieties, the weight per bushel has decreased while the yield per acre has apparently increased. The Oklahoma Station compared fifty varieties of Southern grown seed with thirty-four varieties of Northern grown seed and obtained slightly larger yields of grain and straw from Southern grown varieties. On the other hand, the Ontario Agricultural College

1 For purpose of computation, average December farm price for decade 18901899 was used.

2 Ohio Bul. 139, p. 45.

3 Okla. Bul. 16 (1895), p. 36.

and the Missouri Station have been exchanging seed oats yearly, and the results have shown in general that the Missouri growr oats have produced the largest yield of grain, and that the Ontario seed produced grain of the best quality when grown ir Ontario.1

394. Need of Water.--It has already been shown that the water requirement of oats may be large. (391) This has been confirmed by King, who reports the water requirement of a pound of dry matter in oats to be 504 pounds; of barley, 464 pounds; and of maize, 277 pounds. To this must be added the fact that the growth of oats is very rapid and the amount of straw relatively large. The daily demand for water during the period of most rapid growth for each pound of grain produced is high. The amount of water required for irrigating oats in Western States is estimated at about one and three-quarters feet, distributed between May 22 and August 20.3

II. SOIL AND ITS AMENDMENTS.

395. Soil. The character of the soil upon which oats are sown is of less importance than any other cereal, with the possible exception of buckwheat. Almost any tillable soil brings a fair crop if climatic conditions and cultural methods are suitable. It is on this account, and because oats are liable to lodge on fertile soils, that they are sown on the poorer soils and on soils in the most exhausted state of fertility. The oat does best, however, on relatively moist soils.

396. Rotation.-The oat appears less influenced by rotation with grass and clover than either wheat or maize. The Indiana Station has grown maize, wheat and oats continuously or in alternation one with another for fifteen years, in comparison with the same crops in rotation with grass and clover on

1 Ont. Agr. Col. and Expt. Farms Rpt. 1903, p. 122.

2 Physics of Agriculture, p. 139.

8 U. S. Dept. of Agr., O. E. S. Bul. 119.

adjacent plats. The average per cent of gain from rotation with clover and grass has been: wheat, fifty; maize, twentytwo; and oats, nineteen.1 In the American systems of rotation oats usually follow maize. The following may be recommended: For winter wheat sections: maize, one year; oats, one year; winter wheat, one year; timothy and common red clover, one or two years. (119) For sections specially adapted to maize and not to wheat: maize, two years; oats, one year; timothy and clover, one to three years, depending upon live stock kept. (283) For Southern States: maize and cowpeas, one year; oats, followed by cowpeas harvested for hay, one year; cotton, one or two years. In the first year of this rotation, the cowpeas grown between the rows of maize may be harvested for grain. It has been shown that a rotation including cowpeas greatly increased the subsequent yield of oats. In Arkansas it has been found possible to raise a profitable crop of peas after removing a crop of oats, in time to seed to oats again in the fall. When the stubble was plowed under, the subsequent yield of oats was considerably increased, and when the vines also were plowed under, the increased yield of oats was greater than that caused by the application of 400 pounds of a complete commercial fertilizer per acre.3

397. The Influence of Fertilizers. -Fertilizers are seldom applied to the oat crop, both because they are apt to grow too rank and because it usually pays better to apply the manure to some other crop. Oats, however, respond very readily to an application of fertilizers when applied where needed, as shown in various rotations where light and heavy applications of stable manure and commercial fertilizers were used continuously for ten years.

1 Ind. Rpt. 1895, p. 38.

2 Ala. Bul. 95, p. 157.

3 Ark. Bul. 66.

4 Ohio Bul. 134, p. 91.

Ind. Bul. 88.