The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1893-12-13
The Dat Crop.

'"l1uIS I'll OdUS, DuG SGlll hO "
that it is a crop that ought to be valu-
able to southern farmers.
From what our correspondent writes
we are confident he has failed to real
ihe the full value of this crop, and Tor
several reasons. He has SOwn too late
as 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 900 to 1000 pounds OF
seed cotton to tie 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 l;feless matter OF
the disintegrated rock with the power
to produce something of value later on,
but it was at a 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 labor 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.
Il 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
very good crop of them from land
that they would not think OF planting
in cotton. This idea is a wrong one.
Land that will not grow a profitable
crop of cotton is not likely to grow
prOfita bic crop Of oats.
While the fattening power of a bushel
SO pOunds) of corn is much greater
than bushel Of oats OBJ 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
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
the'same as twenty bushels Of corn
does, and farmers of experience under
stand very we'll 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 a 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
we'll even when soWn at an improper
time or with an inadequate quantity
of seed per acre. 1t is only rarely that
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 a half or three bush
Il