The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-10-29
seasouable Notes on Oats.

 !. fNrtoher is above all other months 2 &he one most advisable for the sowlns of oats But even if this best month has passed without affording time TOT the sowing of fall oats. the hrst nail < of November is also an approPli"'' time. Earlier sowing arordS ihis. yields and plants that are less iiapi to be winter killed. hut oats S""h dns time up to the middle of NoVenper have a good chance to make faiS yteld.
 The date of sowing a certain experi- ment with red rust proof oats. reported at Auburn for seven years. rahs'u from November 10 to November :" The yields obtained from sowings a' these dates averaged ll.3 busheis per acre greater than when the sme klid Of oats were sown from February 5 |" March l.
 Only in one year out of the seven was there sufficient winter killing u cause those sown after Christmas l' yield moro heavily than oats sowh III November. In other years. the excess from sowing In November ranged from 2.6 a year when both sowing" were practically failure, to "N.H bushels per acre. obtained in the la vorable year 1906, when the yield ot fsll-sown red oats on ordinary uplana rose to 53S bushels per acre The acreage results for seven years shows q Gain of B per cent, due to November sowing, and other tests show that tnc yield is even greater when the seed are Sown in October.
 The method of planting fall oats ia deep furrows without filling these ldr- rows constitutes the maximum insur- ance against winter killing. In this method furrows in the plowed ground are laid off IS to 24 inches apart with large shovel and the seed or seed ana fertilizer drilled in the bottom of thes', snd barely covered. In four years tests at Auburn, this method anordel larger yields than broadcast sowing However, it is not the only method oI sowing oats, and those who feel that they cannot at this busy season use this method because 1t is relatively slow, need not despair of success m growing oats. Except in the severes' winters, only one or two of which have occurred within the past eleven years, oats sown broadcast in october or carry in November usually pass through the winter in Central Alabama without be- ing so severely winter killed as to re- duce their yield as low as that from oats sown in January or FebruarS Even If 70 per cent of the plants la'' sowing should be winter killed the yield from the remaining 50 per cen : q from spring sowing.
 Moreover we do not entirely escape danger from cold by postponing sowing until after Christmas. I recall an Tn stance in which In a severe winter certain field of fall-sown oats was SD thinned that the manager plowed un , der the remnant of stand and so"eu again in January. This sowing "d.' likewise ruined by cold. If oats cannot be sown before the first Of December I prefer 70 wait until about the hrst hl February
 While the total number of arieties of oats is largely a relatively small number succeed in the South, and on- ly q part of these are adapted 70 sowing in the fall. Turf O. grazing oats are the hardest towards cold bat on poor land frequently do not vie d we'll and demand earlier so!ins thah is absolutely necessary with Red Rust proof oats. Burt oats are ten der towards cold and seldom sown n the fall Most Northern 'arletles are decided failures in the south
 These considerations dicate the importance of our being able to mak' sure whether q specimen )f seed oats offered us is the genuine Red Rust Proof. which. with it's several stralnS as Appler and Culberson. may be re- Rarded as the standard ariety To- general use in this part Of the South
 We usually recognize Red oats by the decided reddish color. Dy. the mo- table plumpness of the grain, and br the presence of boards Yet any ot these characters may belong to othe' varieties We recently found at the Alabama Experiment Station that more distinctive characteristic of Re,' oats is the presence of a cluster or ane hairs at the base oi the lower grain of each twin grain @nd th- d .ater length of some tf these haffs on the Red than oI .her varis ties. These punches of bfistles are not 10 he found on every spiAeiet of Rel oats. but on a large proportion of the twin grains. Since the ioentitica-