Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1899-12-27

OF experiments Win oats ltpVItrl tHit1
years ago. In reply TO the often-asked
question as 10 which Is the best var
iety Of oats, the author says that there
IL no best variety Cor all coils and
all conditions Of those soils. Some var
ieties tested would do as well on gray
ELY soils as others. Some are better
for rich soils. others for thinner soils.
Some are not wanted at all because OF
weak straw others because OF the color
Of the grain. and stiil others because TOO
late In maturing. As rule the medium
early varieties are best.
sixty-six varieties were tested, which
are divided into various group, namely,
the Welcome Group, which usually have
weak straw, and include one-third OF
the sixty-six varieties. Second, the
Seizure Group. of fourteen varieties,
all OF which have heads on one side and
are usually termed side oats The
third group includes twenty-three var
ieties, In general form resembling the
Welcome oats, except that the berry
Is longer more pointed, usually lighter
and with stronger straw. This group
Is termed the Wdeawake class. The
fourth group includes the mixed and
black seed oats, having characteristics
similar TO the Welcome. In the Wei
come group the average yield In three
years has been from 1880 bushels per
acre to 6i.42 bushels, the last yield that
OF the Lincoln oats. In the Seizure or
side oats class the lowest average was
1896, and the highest 5i.lS bushels per
acre. In the Wideawake group the
ACREAGE FOR three years ran from
1886 TO 60.5I per acre, aud the mixed
group about 10 average. A number
of varieties in the Welcome
class beat the Welcome. The Drog
heda was the poorest, making an av-
erage Of over 20 bushels per acre less
than the Lincoln growing along side Of
IT, The results show that the Lincoln
oats stands al the head In point of pro-
ductiyeness, followed by close oompet-
ltors In the Improved American, ely
desdale. White Belgian and Colonel
The Lincoln was most susceptible TO
smut, which can be prevented by the
hot water treatment.
The oats Of the Seizure group weighed
more on on average than either OF the
other classes. Fun tabulated series OF
the weights are given. The shortest
season for any variety was eighty-one
days. and the longest lO3 day.
In every case the earliest ripening sorts
were among the lowest yielders. Most
people want an early oat. but the data
given show that when the early sort
is grown In preference TO medium
early one Il Is at the expense Of q
lighter yield. There seems TO be two
extremes the earliest and the latest,
neither doing as we'll as the medium.
The early maturing sorts are nearly
all weak. strawed while most Of the
later maturing Seizure oats are
strong-strawed.
Comparison was made Of the meth
DDS OF preparing the seed bed. II
seemed that rolling the land before
seeding gave slightly better results than
rolling alter sowing, The same results
were had in previous years While
compactIng the soil seemed TO be an ad-
vantage on the grayelly soil az Column
bus. II seemed to be disadvantage In
Wayne county. Heavy rains soon after
planting seem 10 operate more unfayor-
ably on land that has been rolled; but
this is less marked where the rolling
precedes the drilling. The results show
that the more shallow the covering the
greater the yield, both Of oats and
straw.
An experiment was made in mixing
several varieties OF oats together and
In blowing out all the light seed from
another sample and sowing the light
and heavy seed separately. A further
lot was sown as common oats right
from the thresher II was found that
while the heavy oats did not reproduce
heavy oats they gave five bushels
more per acre and 100 pounds more OF
straw. Common seed from the thresher
gave a larger yield than the light oats,
and making varieties was a detriment
rather than advantage, II seemed that
where the land was plowed six or
seven inches deep the average yield
was five bushels more than on land
that was disoed three or four inches
deep.
II was found that where hot water
treatment was applied to the seed there
was no smut whatever, while untreated
seed gave large percentage Of smutty
heads. In regard to the amount OF
seed per acre, 1t appeared that with
the Seizure class Of oats the yield in
creased with the amount Of seed used
up to nine 9ecks per acre. while with
the Wideawake class the heaviest
Weld was from seven pecks seeding,
me heaviest grain from the eight peck
seeding and the heaviest straw from
the four peck seeding.