The Bon Homme County independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1904-1913, 1907-11-14
WHAT ABOUT sEEp oATs9


The outlook for securing good.
strong oats for seeding next spring
Is not assuring. As late threshtng re-
turns r made KNOWN. 1t becomes
more evident that the grain Is poorly
filled, and much Of IL shrunken until
II will not make safe seed to SOW.
With this alarming scarcity OF de-
pendable seed. 1t behooves every farm
er to make early and ample pro-
vision for seed. Where heavy seed can
not be had the next best thing to do
Is to grade your home grown stock
until you are sure that you have blown
over and discarded all light and
shrunken kernels. Too much pains
.cannot be k with this seed, for
the crop has received a sewers set
back this year, and only the hardest
and most vigorous seed can now be
depended upon to phelp matters next
season.
There is no use trying to shield the
fact that our oat crops have been
conditions are favorable. We succeed in
growing a fair crop: but oats have
lost that stamina which would enable
1t to pull through adverse conditions,
and the result is that wet weather or
sold weather disastrously affects he
crop. What We need Is some live work
In breeding up old varieties. or intro
LUCILLE SoillC NC" blOOu. f1S yOG VIC
have done practically nothing. or at
east we have accomplished nothing.
We have not today one solitary variety
Of oats which we car depend upon to
pull through q bad season. The Swe-
dish Select, which did well in the
acrthern oat Lelt for so many years,
notably in Wisconsin,, has made q very
DOOR showing this season. In fact, in
come of the best oat counties In Wis
:orsin, the Silver Mine and the scrub
sorts have done better han the high
bred Swedish. The best sample OF
pats / have seen this season comes
from northern Minnesota. 1t Is an I'M
named variety. out 1t has been care
fully selected. for six years, and Ii has
been proved harder, more nearly rust
proof and a better hull than any OF
The new sorts. This leads me back
again to h question OF grading up
the best we ave on our own farms.
II some neighbor has been successful
In getting a fair crop, try some OF his
seed, and then sow enough to make a
good stand.
One thing is certain. we must get
ousy breeding UP. 1his can be done
by two ways-by selection and by n.y.
bridizing. Selection is the most feasible
method for farmers, but II must be
done persistently and systematically.
Cleaning and grading seed grain Is
BOOu as IdF dS IL goes. but lOF pest
results hand selection should be prac-
iiced In the fields, selecting the best
filed heads and best stalks of straw.
BY going through the field just when
The crop is. turning ripe, these out
standing heads will be quite easily no
Iced, and one can surely select enough
20 SOW an acre plat the next season.
Cross breeding or ~hybridizing is dis
sinctly the work of the plant breeder
inc our experiment stations, n while
our oat fields show the need of work
Of this kind, farmers had best stick
TO hand selection. We are fast COM
ing to a point where every farmer must
De an experimentalist. The conditions
OH even adjacent farms vary so widely
that only general rules can be laid
down, so 1t must rest with every in
diVidual farmer to work out his own
problems, M work for results on his
own land. and under his own condi-