The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1885-10-21
AGRICULTURAL DEPARTMENT.
Tho Culture of Rcd oats.

us who follow that method of obtain
ing our subsistence, to have an eX-
change of views upon this important
subject. / know there arc farmers
who are well versed i'm this branch and
l would like TO get their ideas a n
matter of improvement for myself.
My experience has been limited, but
l have made some observations and
perhaps some of your readers might
like to hear them.
There was n period Of time when
VIC were not dependent on the oat
crop for stock feed, but hat has long
since passed away, and we now con
slider the oat crop our only hope, as
to be but one OF things of the past, a
part of the agricultural history of the
anti bellum regime. Just after the
war closed and cotton was selling al
the way up AS high as 40 cents per
pound, when everything was in an
abnormal condition, when the com
merce, the finances, and the agricul-
turc of the whole country was on q
boom, the basis of which was an in
tlated currency, when money flowed
like water, we could afford high stock
feed, but i'm q few years when every
thing settled down to q normal condi-
ton, the farmer began to look about
for cheap food for the mules that
worked the cotton crop and the result
was u general introduction of the
famous red rust proof oat.
Some claimed that il vas o GOd-send
to this country, the only hope of ne
cotton planter, while | have always
been undecided whether it was n bless
ing or a curse, for this reason, if the
cotton planter had been unable to get
this oat some twelve OF fourteen Years
ago, he would have Been forced to
ADOPTS different system of agricul-
ture and he would have been unable
to raise cotton at the low price he re-
ccived for it, without this cheap stock
food, consequently he would have
given more of his time and attention
to production of food crops, the rear
together with sowing the various
grasses and making fine pastures.
Again he would never have known
and suffered the evils of that vampire,
the lien law, which, while it is grad
ually sucking his life blood, cools him
with the flap of its wing in the form of
hope. The red oat, like whiskey, is
good in it's place, but is and has been
harmful as a basis for a cotton crop.
AS a leader there is no better crop for
our farmers, and we should give to it
that Intelligent study that it deserves;
there is ono serious drawback, how
ever, to Il oat crop and only one
which l have carefully studied to rem
cdv so far as my oWn crop is concern
ed and that is the freezing III process
which has proven so disastrous of late
years.
Last season L planted one hundred
acres in oats, and planted in several
ways to satisfy myself which was the
surest way to get a good stand, and
the safest way of protection from
freezes. The first safeguard is early
sowing always, as late sowing is
seyenty-five per cent. more liable to
freezeout than early sowing. l sowcd
my crop in various ways to find out
the best method of putting in a crop.
The largest part, l prepared it nicely,
cotton seeded it well, then sowed the
seed and narrowed in the whole thing,
/ next plowed in some very shallow
and then narrowed the ground, get
ting rs fine a stand as the first. Next,
l plowed in some as deep as mules
could pull the plows, CT mean one
horse plowsl, and narrowed the
ground, also got a fine stand. Ali of
this done in due season, not later than
goth October. / then sowed some in
latter part of November and Dcccm-
Der, all of which [ plowcd in about an
average depth. Some l narrowed and
some / left rough in order to find out
If narrowing the ground had any effect
on the stand, but being sowcd late.
and the freezes commencing, not more
than three per cent. of them ever came
up at all, being killed in the process
of termination. Ninety acres ont of
the hundred were killed out, while
the remaining ten acres were far from
having q full stand. Now the best
stand of the ten acres were those that
l plowed in deepest, and the next
best were those that | plowcd in shall
low, while the poorest stand were
~thoss / narrowed in.
l also took occasion to notice the
different styles of sowing adopted BY
nearest %neighbors, and found about
the same results with them as in my
w fields. 1 claim if we will plow
in the oats deep and then harrow the
ground owe that the freezes will not
effect the staud more than ten per
cent, which is a reasonable allowance
for bad seed and weakly plants, where
If we put them in shallow, the stand
will be injured fully fifty per cen |
give as my reasons the following: NY
actual experiment for that purpose.
1t is potent to all that where hats have
been sown on cotton land, you can
stand and trace the original water
burrows between the old cotton beds,
by the regular stand of BATS looking as
if they had been sown i'm drills. Again
[ can tell where the laps of two lands
is by the oats being more regular
along this ridge, because in blowing
along this lap the oat seed get twice as
much dirt thrown over them, by
reason of the tapping process, rs any
other part of the land. Yet again, 1
can trace out every water furrow
between the lands where the oat crop
simply been narrowed in and am UNI
able to account for it i'm any other way
than by more of the soil being drag
ged in this furrOW by The harrow.