The Bossier banner., 1893-11-30
FARMER AND PLANTER.
THE OAT CROP.
One of Great Value When Properly Man
aged.

"SiS W Ii
From what our correspondent writes
we are confident he has failed to real
ize the full value of this crop, and for
several reasons. He has sown too late
as a general rule. He has sown too
little seed, and he has sown on too
poor land.
If our farmers would SOW two and
one-half or three bushels of good oat
seed on an acre of good land-land
that will make 800 to 1000 pounds OF
seed cotton to the acre and will put the
seed in right any time during the
month of October there will be very
few of them who will be disappointed
in the results.
Nothing can come out OF nothing.
Oats will not grow on wornout land.
Poverty weed may, but of what value
is poverty weed? 1t is one of the lowest
forms of vegetable life. This weed,
along with the linchens and other in
nutritious forms of vegetation, first
began to supply the lifeless matter of
the disintegrated rock with the power
to produce something of value later on,
but it was at period before there were
any animals to feed upon the earth.
The oat is the best or poorest form.
That it exists is a product of mans
careful la Dor and the earth's advanced
fertility. Compared to poverty weed"
is like comparing the race horse of to-
day with the little equine representa-
tive Of the Australian plains.
1t has been our observation that very
many farmers expect oats to grow
where they would not expect any cot
ton. At any rate they seem to expect
a very good crop of them from land
that they would not think of planting
in cotton. This idea is wrong one.
Land that will not grow a profitable
crop of cotton is not likely to grow
profitable crop of oats.
While the fattening power of bushel
(56 pounds) of corn is much greater
than bushel of oats (32 pounds) the
latter will produce almost as much
strength muscle force as the former.
Except for fattening hogs and other
animals we should prefer 100 pounds
of oats to 100 pounds of corn. AS a
food for human beings and race horses
we should prefer the 100 pounds of
oats to the 100 pounds of corn.
Thirty-fve bushels of oats weigh
thelsame as twenty bushels of corn
does, and farmers of experience under
stand very well that the land that will
produce twenty bushels of corn as the
result of cultivation will, under good
management, produce thirty-fve or
more bushels of oats-and without the
expense of cultivation.
Considering the relative value in
money of the two grains it is useless
to expect a valuable crop of oats from
land that will not produce five or six
bushels of corn, and yet many times we
have seen farmers sowing land in oats
that they would not think of plant
ing in corn. And again farmers will
go to great deal of trouble to pre-
pare land for corn and refuse to take
the necessary pains in preparing
it for oats. They expect oats to do
well even when sown at an improper
time or with an inadequate quantity
they will undertake to fertilize oat
land with the same care that they
would give to corn land.
If our correspondent will take land
that yields him fifteen to twenty bush
els of corn without manure, or with
but a moderate use of it, and will plow
this land properly in October and then
harrow in two and half or three bush
els of good plump oats and then roll
tho lonH hn will f1uI IL hok 4 I
oat crop is about as valuable as any
that he grows. 1t will be but rarely
the case that few dollars worth of
good fertilizer will be out of place.
AS rule the manuring of an oat crop
means the manuring of the crop that
follows the oats. The more stubble
that is made means that much vegeta-
BILE matter to be turned under for the
next crop. Not one acre in fifty of our
southern soils has adequate supply of
humus to render them fertile and the
more vegetable matters given them it
is that much permanent fertility added
to it, fertility that will make its
mark" for several years.
Our southern farmers, as a class.
1IuNC IOO JCU SOl1AC W d 1IIl
ing of the value Of the harrow and the
roller. We see very few crops of grain
put in with these implements, and vet
it is impossible to make the highest
success of grass, clover and grain grow
ing without them.
We do not hesitate to assert that if
every acre that is sown in grain (wheat.
rye, oats and barley, were put in with
the harrow and the roller (iust as if
should be done), the aggregate product
would be 25 per cent, greater, and quite
likely more.
The highest civilization in agricul.
ture is exhibited by the use of these
implements. Farming can not be car.
ried on in the most intelligent wav
without them.
We are confident that all who have
come to understand the value of the
harrow and the roller, from a several
years use of them, will sustain this as.
sertion.
Let us take half the pains with our
oat Tor rye, or wheat, or barley crop
L