The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-06-11

Mihh4
 Save Seed oat. at Home.
 Strange to say it is the exception rather than the rule for an Alabama farmer to save his own seed oats. The same farmer who would regard as poor management the purchase each year of all the seed corn CT cotton seed needed for planting. will continuously rely upon a farmer in Texas, or, for augnt he knows, on farmer in the North west. for his seed oats. This ought not to be so. Yet the farmer Is not SO much to blame as bald statement or the facts implies. Let 1t be said Tn extenuation of this regrettaole custom that it is difficult in most nefghbor- hoods to 1et the use of a threshing machine If a census of these ma chimes could be taken now 1t would be found that there has been nota- ble decrease in the number. This mas been the natural result of the increas- ing prevalence of the tenant system
 While there are difficulties Tn the way of the average small farmer who plans to save his own seed oats, yet the advantage of homegrown oats are important enough to justify strong en- deayors to this end. Any farmer can grow a bushel of oats cheaper than ne can purchase suitable seed oats from dealer More important still he can be sure of getting what he wants, that is in getting a variety true to name, while in making a purchase he may get an oat unsuited to his climate. In bought oats there is always the dan ger that they may contain the seed of troublesome weeds, especially of cheat and Johnson grass Again the amount of smut on one crop ot oats Is almost in direct proportion to the amount or this disease in the seed oats. our ex- perience on the station farm IS that even when we do not treat the seed oats with formali. or hot watr to de- stroy the smut spores. we get far less smut in a crop from home grown than in purchased seed.
 Let no man be dissuaded from saving his own oats for seed simply because his present crop is full of smut. smut in oats is easily oreventable, and direc- tions for treating the seed just before sowing with this in view will be given in these colmuns and in forthcoming bulletin of the Alabama Experiment Station in ample time.
 Assuming that there is not available any public thresher. what is to De done? If the farm is large enough 1t will often pay Cor it's owner to pur- chase a small thresher for his own use and for such of his neighbors as may be willing to haul their oats to his ma
  smaller sizes of threshers can be bought for considerably less than $500 and in this purchase 1t will sometimes be practicable for several even-tern- pered neighbors to join
 But let no small farmer, though he be only a one-horse renter. conclude that a threshing machine Is absolutely essential to his saving few bushels or seed oats. He can even secure this small amount by beating the bundies over the edge of a wagon body or bar rel or by failing on floor, removing the chafr in a current of wind. The end is important enough to pay for considerable labor.
 If any one avoids the trouble of saw ing his seed oats on the untenable plea that oats deteriorate when grown long on one farm. would call his attention to the fact that the average yield of the eighteen or twenty acres of o&ts on the Experiment Station farm IS higher this year than ever before. On some areas visiting farmers estimate that the yield will run between forty and fifty bushels per acre. This ls on ordinary upland. And yet we have grown this same strain uninterrupt- edly for the eleven seasons during which the work has been under lny charge There has been no deteriora- tion ip yield. But there has been some mechanical mixing of varieties, and steps have been taken to overcome this mixing, which is so natural on an ex- pertinent station where so many vari- cites are threshed in the same ma- chine each year.
 If we must buy seed it is important to be able to recognize the seed of the three leading varieties suited to the South. The writer has worked out a system for distinguishing the kernels, but before publishing it in bulletin this summer together with results of numerous fertilizer and variety tests Of oats. wish to ascertain whether 1t applies to oats grown under all condi- tions. Hence readers would confer a kindness by mailing to me few heads of any variety that they may have growing, stating under what name the sample was bought, where the parent seed oats were supposed to be grown; month when sowing was made, approx innate date of ripening, and extent of injury from rust. Of course the send CTS will not expect reply, unless af- ter reading the bulletin in August or September they find some question about oats of interest to them unan- swered. J. F. D.
 April 10, 1906 Mir. J. F. Stewart. R. F. D. l. McFal'
 Ala.
 Dear sir-As requested I write you relative to propagation of Bermuda grass. It Is best propagated from DOT lions of the underground root stems which may be cut and dropped in holes 9x2 or 3x3 feet, the dropper step hing on each piece of root and another hand covering with hoe or blow. It is also propagated from seed, about