The Savannah morning news., 1904-12-19

The prophets are predicting very
mild winter this year for this country.
It is quite reasonable to anticipate
wet winter and such a winter is like
" to be warmer than a dry one. In
this section of the country we are due
a considerable amount of rain as the
result of the long dry spell of the lat
ter half of 1904.
From all accounts the British Isles
are having the worst of the winter
thus far. the cold of November being
the severiest they have experienced
in many years.
Now and then we may experience
winters like that of 1sS1-s2 when grain
sown in November and December came
up and grew to maturity with hardly
check to it's growth at any time. I'm
less a winter somewhat like that one
should follow this autumn there will
be little to expect from the grain sown
this season. Dry weather prevented
farmers from sowing oats before No
vember, and many have sown as late
as Dec. 10.
Except in these rarely occurring mild
winters such as 81, there is great risk
in sowing grain even as late as Nov.
l. AS a rule If it cannot be seeded
properly by that date it is much bet
ter to wait until February before SOW
ing. The farmer that raises plenty of
seed himself is the one that can afford
to take the risk. The small farmer
that relies on buying the seeds and per-
haps at a price not less than 81 per
bushel, cannot well afford the risk.
While there is an advantage in SOW
ing oats in the fall, it is only where
the sowing is made early enough to
allow the grain to get well rooted and
growth sufficient to make it mulch the
soil by the time the hard freezes of late
December or January occur. If this
cannot be secured it will be found to
be a much better farm policy to defer
the sowing until February, in the
meantime, giving the land a second
good blowing preparatory to putting
in the seed. This extra blowing will
offset the delay usually. Anyhow, 1t
will pay better to wait and prepare the
soil thoroughly than to sow like many
do when the work is done in Novem-
ber-to-wit: broadcasting the seed on
unbroken soil and then turning all I'M
der with a turn pillow. Oats or any
other grain sown after this manner
need not be expected to make much of
yield. unless the SOIL is extremely
rich in humus and elements of plant
food. Average soil will not make ten
bushels per acre under such treatment.
We would not think of planting a
crop of corn without first blowing the
soil for it, and yet oats and sometimes
wheat are begrudged even this poor
preparation of one blowing and this
is the principal reason why our acre
age production is less than ten bushels
per acre when it ought easily to be
twenty.
1t is only few Southern farmers
that put anything like a proper val
uation on the oat crop. The very best
ones da.
With proper preparation of the soil,
proper regard for the time of sowing
and a use of the proper quantity of
seed, and the use of proper soil, there
is no crop better worthy of our farm
ers' regard than oats.
It is par excellence the food for
working animals-mules and horses,
and its regular use for such purpose
the year round, would have the effect
of saving thousands of these animals
that are every year killed by corn in
the South.
Southern farming will never be at
its best until oats become the univer-
sal food for all working animals. For
one oat-fed horse or mule that dies Of
collie a dozen of the corn-fed die.
The average farmer puts a very I'M
fair valuation on this great grain.