The Florida agriculturist., 1908-03-01

and as the time is now on for sowing
the spring crop Of same few notes
on the subject will not be out of place
= In the general rotation of farm
crops oats should follow corn or sweet
potatoes. | always had the best croI
Of oats after sweet potato CROP
more particularly so if the sweet pota1
to crop had been treated to a liberia
application of stable manure (and here
let me emphasize the necessity of more
live stock on the Southern farm, fof
the manure produced by live stock i$
the rock bottom foundation of success :
ful farming, as it puts the soil In q
condition to respond readily to a ju :
dicious application of commercial fer :
tilizer). But to come back to the oat
crop, land intended for this crop
should be we'll p1owed to a depth or
at least ten to fifteen inches. If th{.
crop is fa1l-planted and has to go
through our winter rains, eight to ten
inches will be ample; but in this in :
stance we are considering the spring Z
sowing of the crop.
If the land has been plowed som :
time before the crop is planted good
plan is to run a flve-tooth cultivator
over the land before applying the fer :
tilizer-in fact, no land should be fer :
ti1ized without stirring the soil in som L
way if rain Or two has fallen sine l.
the land was p1owed. The application
and grade of fertilizer is very i'm =
portant point in making a good crc1.
A great number, if not the majority,
of our farmers never fertilize the oa t
crop, depending upon left fertilit
from the preceding crop to be 5ufd :
cient. This is not profitable farming g.
It is expecting something for nothin g
and is ruinous to the soil. as it de-
pletes it of its natural fertility. Aftd +
going over it with a cu1tivator as al
ready mentioned, the fertilizer should
be applied broadcast and narrowed 9dl-
to the soil.
Let us now consider the grade Of tn e
fertilizer needed. In the early stag e
of the crop nitrogen plays the most
important part but we must not MAX e
the application too heavy and induce
a rank growth at the start, which ma y
be cut short by a late frost. Oats
sown about the middle of February
should not have much of a growth
made before the first of April, when all
danger of frost is over. Therefore, VI e
want the nitrogen content to be sma II
at first and make top dressing of
two hundred pounds per acre Of nj
trate of soda about the middle Df
April The other elements in the fe r
tilizer, potash and phosphoric aci d,
should be applied before sowing the
crop, as already stated. The analysis
of these should show per cent phos-
phoric acid and OF per cent potash
The potash, which is the most impo r.
tant element of the three for oats,
should be high, as it has to give S ia
bility and stiffness to the plant to pre-
vent it from lodging in heavy airs,
and also to make plump well-roun ID
ed oat kernel. But how often ha aKe
we seen promising crop of oats til tn
out a dismal failure in not filling out at
the proper time, through the lack of
sufficient potash in the soil to fni 5h
the work the other elements had be-
gun. So I would emphasize the gre at
necessity of seeing to it that the fer
ti1izer applied is we11-ba1anced ohe,
as above stated, to give satisfactd ry
results.
The amount of seed to SOW per adre
is another important consideration w tn
the oat crop A peck to the acre us ed
to be considered ample seeding by the
Southern Farmer. The average yield
with such seeding was three bush els
per acre On land ferti1ized with eight
hundred pounds per acre of fertil-
izer of the grade already recomme1 Id
ed at least two bushels of seed should
be used, and if the quality of soil is
the average we can readily expect FRI om
twenty-five bushels up of crop fr om