Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1909-12-28

If one Will take the trouble 10 ass
the next ten men he sees what grain
crop gives the greatest yield of grain
in bushels, FIVE of them probably viii
answer instantly, Corn" Two of th'
others will guess Wheat" and two
will say "Rice." The tenth man will 90
i'm doubt, but he will say it is one OF
the other of those three crops. YET
everyone of them will be wrong. Pre-
uiership in world production belongs
to oats. The world crop of oats leads
that of corn by 250,000,0OO bush
els. exceeds the production of wheat
by nearly 400, 100000 bushels, is nearly
three times as great as the production
of barley, and more than double the
WELD Of rye. Even rice, principal diet
of Asiatic millions, does not show as
great a busnel-yield as oats by $780,
600 900 bushels. Oats, king of grain
crops. showed a world yield Of more
tnan $500, 100000 bushels in 1908.
DIR. Samuel Johnson said oats were
eaten by men in Scotland and horses ~
England yes" replied a canny scot,
"and have you observed that England
is famous for its horses and Scotland
for it's men?'' What wheat is to the
chinese. that is oats to the tables OF
millions of European families. Indeed,
Europe, which produces only an eighth
OF the worlds corn and half of its
wheat, produces two-thirds OF its oats
Crop concentration is one of the most
Interesting things that relates to the
worlds food supply. While North
America produces nearly so per cent
of the worlds corn, Europe grows sc
ner cent of it's oats, and Asia 9S per
cent of it's rice North America fur
nishes IL out of every 10 bales or
the worlds cotton, while Europe yields
9 out of 10 bushels Of it's potatoes.
While oats furnishes the biggest grain
crop, cotton the biggest f1ber CROP anu
cattle the biggest meat crop, 1t re-
mains for potatoes to furnish the big
gest of all crops which enter into the
diet of man. Nearly 5000, 100000 busn-
els were grown in 1907, and while the
potato is distinctly plant OF Amerl-
can ancestry, the Americans produce
less than one bushel of potatoes where
Europe produces a hundred.
In point of quantity oats is the sec
ond grain crop in the United States, al
though wheat outranks 1t in weight and
in value 1t is first among the grain
crops of Canada. The yield of oats in
the latter country is practically equal
to That of corn, wheat and barley to-
gether. In 1908 it was equal to all
these, with all the smaller grain crops
thrown in for good measure. Its pres
tige in Canada is due mainly to the
fact that it is one of the hardest Of
crops, and will start in northern eli
mates late enough in the spring TO
escape the ending winter, and mature
early enough in the fall to escape the
cold and frost of the beginning winter
IT is also one of the most immune of
all the crops from disease and pests,
thus assuring a good average yield.
Likewise, it's straw is much more pala-
table to cattle and other live stock
than is that of any other Of the grain
crops.
IT has been estimated that rne demands
of the american people Tor cereals as
breakfast foods has multipned nun
dred-fold in a single generation, and that
while oats was first on the ground as a
claimant for favor, and mas peen haro
pressed by the vast advertising cam
paigns conducted in the interest or corn
and wheat preparations, II stu holds
fast table. 1t used to be believed that
oats contained a stimulant principle IKE
caffeine in coffee. 1t was named 'aven-
in" But the most diligenr search In the
chemical laboratory has famed to isolate
1t from the other properties OF the oat
grain.
Liberty Hyde Bailey, the great agricui-
tural expert who has written long lis1
of books on the farm and the farmer, ana
who headed the Roosevelt Country Lite
commission, is authority for the state
ment that the domestic species of oats
may have sprung from the wild oats OF
Europe. Many botanists believe that II
has come down unhybridized for genera
tions from a Tartarian species now lost
and extinct That its native neatn is
eastern Europe is generally believed.
There is said to be no reference to oats
in the literature of China, India, or any
other part of Southern Asia. Some think
IL originated in Persia or Mesopotamia,
where 1t was found growing as voIun-
teer crop on the banks of the Euphrates.
1t is not mentioned in the Bible, though
barley and wheat are.
Though the word corn is seldom used
as medHlHS odlS' IL 10 dppiiS" ~ iiSoii -
all of the other grain crops or the world
In America it means maize, 70 the Scotch
it means oats, to the Englisnman wheat
and to the Scandinavian corn field
means a field of rye. Corn Is woro
that is applied to all grain crops. but II Is
used usually by a people to designate
their principal crop. the Engnsnman
would no more think OF calling maize
corn than the American would think or
speaking OF wheat as corn. when the