The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1892-06-10
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OATS AND WHEAT.

Arguments in Favor of Deep Prepara-
tion of the Soil for These Crops.
The idea is current with the average
farmer that the roots of oats and wheat
are superficial, and that it is useless to
break the ground deeper than is neces-
sary to plow in the seeds and fertilizers,
if any of the latter are applied. This is
, an erroneous conclusion, as we will en-
deavor to show, writes a Texas farmer
to The Southern Cultivator. He con-
tinues: The quantity of roots attached
to plant are far greater than can be
observed by merely lifting them from
the soil. Shubert made an experiment
as follows: An excavation was made in
the field to the depth Of six feet, and a
stream of water was directed against
the vertical wall of soil until it was
washed away, SO that the roots of plants
growing in it were laid bare. The roots
thus exposed in field of oats presented
the appearance of a mat or felt of white
fbers to depth of four feet below the
surface of the ground. The roots Of
winter wheat he observed as deep as
seven feet, in light subsoil, forty-seven
days after sowing.
The quantity of roots in per cent. of
the entire plant in the dry state was
found to be as follows:
Winter wheat examined last of April.40 per ct.
Winter wheat examined last of May. .22 per ct.
Winter rye examined last of April. .34 per ct.
The quality of the soil Influenced the
aggregate yield of roots. In rich por-
Gus garden soil, which is usually deeply
broken up. often uniformly spaded and
well supplied with vegetable matter, a
barley plant produced 1913 feet Of roots;
in heavier compact subsoil a similar
plant yielded only eighty feet of roots.
1t is evident, therefore, how necessary it
is that the plant should have an abun-
dance of room in which to spread out and
extend its roots. Incited by a knowledge
of these principles, early in December,
1890. prepared my soil for seeding oats
by breaking up as deeply as large heavy
mules could pull diamond pointed scooter
plows IA inches long and about 311a wide,
having previously spread broadcast
twenty bushels of green cotton seed and
100 pounds of acid phosphate lime per
acre. Two bushels of oats per acre were
plowed under with a turning plow,
commencing Dec. II. The surface was
then dragged over with heavy brush.
There was uniformly good stand, and
the oats grew without interruption from
the start to full maturity. The long dry
spell in April and May did not retard its
growth, and it attained to height Of
from four to five feet, matured full heavy
grains with heads sixteen inches long.
did not thrash them out, as l was short
of long forage, and fed them after cut
II o,,% +s
ter. Good judges estimated the yield to
be forty bushels per acre. This was not
phenomenal, but remarkable when COM
pared with the average product of tho
neighborhood, which did not exceed
twelve bushels per acre. One of my neigh
bors, with more than double the quantity
of cotton seed per acre, one-third moro
of oat seed, and sowed six weeks earlier,
made at least third less than mine,
when the soil was not broken up previ-
ously to the sowing of seed.
One characteristic of my oats was the
uniform and uninterrupted growth of
the plant during the long dry spell of
April and May, when the oats of the
country in general were atropllied and
dwarfed. with almost a failure in the
ultimate production. ! will remark
that my land is characterized by sr-
perfcial sandy loan three or four inches
deep, supported by a rich tenacious clay
substratum from six to eight feet thick,
the whole resting upon a bed of lime
stone. In sandy soils, with no clay
within five or ten feet from the surface,
it is hardly necessary to remark that
subsoiling would be detrimental rather
than beneficial, as have satisfactorily
proved.