The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1895-10-18
POINTS CONCERNING WINTER OATS.

Prof. w. A. Henry of the Wisconsin
experiment station at Ma olson, says: Fall
oats are grown extensively in the South,
where they are highly appreciated by
many. | do not think there is auy chance
whatever of the southern form of this grain
succeeding here at the north where our
climate is so severe. Even the cold of
last winter killed the southern fall oat
crop in many places. If such light freeze
| would distroy it there, what would be its
chance here at the north 1t may be that
some new hardy variety has been found,
but if so, it is strange that the agrilcultu-
raj department of none of our stations
have heard of it. Almost every year some
agricultural plant which flourishes in
southern ATTITUDES is bounded at the
north, milo maize, teosinte' yezo bean, are
representatives of this class. | advise our
farmers to experiment very cautiously,
or better still, leave this matter to the sta
tions of their respective states.
These stations watch closely for new va
rieties of plants helpful to agriculture and
horticulture, and are generally in the lead.
AS result of this work take the rape
plant, which, while long known in Eng
land and even in Canada, was scarcely
heard of and not at all appreciated by our
farmers, until the experiment stations
| took up the matter. Now rape is grown
on thousand of farms for sheep, and its
use is extending.
Letters from other experiment stations
in the central west show that winter oats
have been tried but in few localities
north of the Ohio, that practically no sys-
tematic test nave been made of them in all
that region, and that they have been most
successful in the extreme southern por-
| tions. Much the same can be said of win
ter oats in the middle and New England
states, although they are used to some eX
tent in Southern Jersey, Delaware and
Maryland. At the Rhode Island expert
ment station, where the winters are usua-
lly less severe than in almost any part
| of New England, winter oats were sown
| with rye after potatoes in 1891. They ger
minated well, but failed to live through
the winter, not even single stool show
ing green leaf in spring, and no trials
have since been made there.
The Huntington seed company of Indi
anapolis Ind, sends us the following let
ter ''Our winter turf oats have been grown
| through this section for four or five years.
Several miles north of indianapolis they
| were sown with the best of success. They
| have been grown in many states for years,
and there is no question but they are per-
| fectly hardy if sown early and become well
rooted. They root very deeply, and GER
| tainly have advantages that will interest
the farmer They are sown in the fall
| when the weather is nice and as they rip
| en- with wheat, the harvesting and thresh-
ing can be done at the same time. Their
fall pasture alone would make them ex-
ceedingy valuable In addition to this
letter a pamphlet containing testimonials
from farmers in north h-central, central and
southern Indiana was also sent us, and
from this appears that winter turf oats
| have been grown successfully and have
| yielded we'll in these various regions.