Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1877-02-08
Tht farnr aud fireside.
SOW OATS.

There is no crop whose cultivation will re-
turn greater profits to the cotton planter than
the oat crop, and yet of all the products Of
the Southern farm none has poorer attention.
Indeed, on many large plantations not an
acre is devoted to this valuable cereal. Even
when an attempt is made to SOW oats, they
are, as general rule, sown upon the poorest
land on the farm, and seeded in the most
rough. and imperfect manner.
1t is quite common to hear planters say
that "oats do not pay" that "the crop is un'
certain" and the like. The truth is that the
failure to raise large crops of oats is due to
causes which produce failures in any other
crop, if effected in the same way and to the
same extent. In the first place, planters who
fail with oats are always too busy to SOW the
crop at the proper time-they wait for con-
venient season. In the second place, they
are always in too much of hurry to prepare
the land properly for seeding. And lastly,
they select the poorest land for this crop
land that will produce neither corn nor cot.
ton-and never think of assisting this poor
land either with homemade or commercial
fertilizers. Under such circumstances it
would indeed be surprising if the crop did
rot invariably fail.
Under our present inferior and expensive
labor system, we should seek to stimulate and
extend the cultivation of those crops which
will give the largest returns for the smallest
amount Of labor expended upon their pro-
duction. These are small grain, including
wheat, rye, oats, barley, peas, clover and
grasses.
On some soils-particularly on the fiat
sandy pine lands which lie along the coast
tier of counties in the Southern States, ex.
tending as far up as the beginning of the
granite formation, wheat cannot be success
fully cultivated. Neither are such land:
adapted to the growth of clover or barley
but wheat can be as cheaply and successfully
grown as in Virginia or Maryland. The oat
will grow and thrive on almost any soil, from
the low, fiat lands of the coast to the rocky
hillsides and fertile valleys of the mountain
regions.
The best time for seeding oats in the cotton
belt is in the fall, but the oat is hardy
plant that thrives we'll sown as late as the
last of February. 1t should be borne in
mind that good crop of oats can only be Sc
cured in the same way that good crop OF
other farm products are made, by thorough
preparation of the soil, careful seeding and
judicious fertilizing.
The land should be cleaned of trash, briers
bushes and the like, and then ploughed with
good turning plow or long diamond-point.
ed scooter. By the latter, if the land is free
from grass or stubble, and by the former ii
rough and covered with vegetable matter.
After the land is well prepared by thorough
blowing, the seed should be sown at the rate
of from three to five pecks to the acre. On
very strong moist or wet lands little more.
Then harrow nicely and cross.harrow the
sod, and if the land is open, porous and sandy,
much benefit will be derived from running a
heavy two-horse roller after the harrow. If
the land is not sufficiently strong to produce
at the rate of twelve bushels of corn or seven
or eight hundred pounds Of cotton to the
acre, some fertilizers should be applied after
the land has been plowed. Thirty bushels of
cotton seed, or one hundred and fifty pounds
of good superphosphate, thrown broadcast on
the sod, and narrowed in with the seed will
secure good crop.
We urge our planting friends to turn their
attention at once to the preparation for a
large crop of oats. The crop natures at a
time when the use of much corn can be
saved, and in our present condition of short
supply of the grain, will prove great saving
and convenience on the plantation. Banner
Of the South.