The Savannah morning news., 1904-10-24
FARM,
The Autumn DrOught-FaH Sow
inES-Wheat Cultivated.

less protracted, may be confidently
but it is rare when dry weather pre-
walls to such an extent as it has done
this season. Since July l there has
not been two saturating rains in
Middle Georgia and not more than
four or five showers" averaging halt
an inch, if that. The middle of Oc-
tober finds a very large section of the
cotton states experiencing all the
effects of a cumulative drought. In
various sections all the smaller
streams have dried up and
the wells have ceased to furnish any
water. Pastures were as dead in
September as they usually are in No
vember. The effects of the drought
began to show on cotton as early as
the last of August. causing the plant
to stop growth and bend all its ener-
gies towards maturing the fruit al
ready set. Such a wholesale matur-
ing of the crop during the month of
September has never occurred before,
in all probability. Despite the scarcity
of labor there was two to three times
more cotton picked out and sent to
market during the month than was
ever known before. By the middle
of October the great bulk of the crop
has opened. Dry as the weather is
the cotton farmer ants it to continue
dry a little longer. Such weather as
we are having puts out of the ques-
ton all thoughts of blowing or put
ting in new crops.
The ground may be too hard to al
low of being plowed. Even if it could
be plowed there would be little just
1ication for putting seeds in the soil,
dry as it is. Before this is printed
there may be saturating rains, but to
day (Oct. 49, there is no more sign.
of rain than there were week ago.
After such drought it is reasona-
BILE to expect that when the rain does
come there is a likelihood of there be
ing plenty of it when it does get well
started. 1t will need a good many
inches of rain to bring back the wells
and water courses to their normal
flow of water and to saturate the
earth to it's normal condition of mois-
ture.
Nearly every year the dry weather
interferes with the sowing of small
grain in the fall. Unless a farmer
adopts the very good plan of sowing
oats in his cotton the last of August
or early in September it does seen
that our seasons together with the
usual rotation practiced, favors the
deferring of oat sowing until spring
February or early March,. What
with the crops to be gathered in TIN
fall together with the uncertainty of
favoring weather. there are very few
farmers that can make the sowing OF
oats fit in at all tremendously with
their regular work. If he succeeds
fairly with his four great staple crops
cotton corn hay, potatoes-lt gives
him about as much as he can do with
the labor at his disposal to gather
in these crops in their due order,
which occurs just at the period for
the sowing of small grain-other than
wheat, probably, which allows of la
ter sowing than any of the others.
For this reason the fall sowing of
oats has not become of general adop-
ton as it otherwise would have done.
Everything being equal or in other
words sown just right at the proper
time in the fall, oats are much surer
and better crop than when sown in
the spring. OF course there is more
time during the winter for preparing
the land for oats to be sown in
February or March and much de-
ponds upon the preparation of the
soil
Every Southern farmer ought to use
oats in his rotation. They are too val
liable a crop ever to be left out a sin
gle season. No farm should fail to
grow enough for feeding the work an
imals at least nine months in the
year if not the whole year. Oats are
much better than corn for the pur-
corn does, and causes many deaths
that might be saved.
A recent writer says:
1.-THE value of oats for working and
growing animals has never been ap-
preciated. Practical farmers and
horsemen have found it much superior
to corn for working animals. 1t has
not been more generally grown be-
cause the danger If winter killing
where fall seeding is done, and liabil-
ity to rust or injury from drought If
sown in the spring.
One trouble is that farmers do not
give the oats a fair chance by a thor
ougih preparation of the soil and prop
er fertilizing, as well as by the selec-
ton of good, clean, heavy seed The
seed should be treated to prevent
blast and rust. Where a system of
rotation is practiced it is not neces-
sary to disturb it to secure certain
kinds of soil for the oat crop, as ii
is not overparticular, doing we'll in
any soil that will produce corn or
cotton. Oats thrive in a wetter soil
than either.
The Georgia experiment station has
shown by practical work in the field
that oats sown in drills eighteen to
twenty-four inches apart give a larger
yield than when sown broadcast, and
also that when seed is sown in an
open furrow and merely covered,
leaving burrows opened or untitled, the
plant is very much less liable to be
killed by a severe freeze. since they
come up one and one-half inch be-
low the general surface and the crown
is formed and established two inches
or more below. Winter rains. light
freezes and thaws partially fill the
open furrow. When carefully drilled
one and one-half to two bushels OF
seed is sufficient for an acre, and
when broadcasted three to four bush
els should be used"
While il is a fact that the small
farmer could make oats a cultivated
crop to very considerable advantage.
1t is very unlikely that he will ever
make a practice Of il. He may not
cultivate oats, but he should not fail
10 adopt the practice with wheat. He
certainly would II he could only once
be persuaded to SOW an acre or two
in drills two feet apart and cultivate
the crop two or three times. Wheat
can be so sown and cultivated that
where It's nominal yield broadcast as
usually sown is only eight or ten
bushels or less, could be increased to
twenty bushels easily, or double the
crop. As the cultivation REQUIRES only