The Marietta journal and courier. (Marietta, Ga.) 1909-1918, 1914-10-16
ARTICLE ON PROPER
CULTURE Of OATS

and most profitable crops, it gains
popularity every year as feed for
stock, and as crop that can be
| made without the expense of clean
cultivation. The cotton acreage of
| Georgia exceeds our oat acreage
about fifteen times, and there are
| too many of us who sell our cotton
and take the money from it and send
1t to some other state to buy feed
| for our stock when we should have
| raised enough to supply our own
state and have surplus to sell to
our neighbOring states. On account
of the cotton market conditions we
are now forced to grow something
we can market at home and | know
of no crop that will pay the aver
age farmer of Georgia better than
| large acreage of oats this year.
Winter killing of oats may be
greatly reduced and larger yields in
surad by the following method:
| lst-Sowing in October, 2nd-sow-
ing in the open furrow; 3rd-sow-
| ing with grain drill and 4th-pre-
pairing a good seed bed and using
only the best of seed.
1t is necessary to sow in time for
| the plants to make few inches
growth before severe winter wealth
er begins. October is our best month
while some years good results have
been made by sowing in November,
| but it is much safer to SOW sooner
to insure a good stand and that is
! absolutely necessary for large yields.
The sowing in open furrow is very
essential in the northern sections of
the State to protect the young plants
from our cold winter winds
and also to collect and store up as
much water as possible for it's main
growing season which is in the early
spring.
By using a grain drill you can
SOW your grain evenly, distributing
the fertilizer and can be much surer
of having a better and even stand
than when sown broadcast and Gov
cred with a harrow. If there is a
large acreage to be sown it will be
found much better to use drill that
will sow several rows at time, as
help is nearly always scarce at this
time of the year, so we must do our
work with as few men as possible.
While oats will grow on nearly
| any tillable soil, it is very import
ant that we prepare a good seed bed
| for them, the better the conditions
the better the results. If following
corn, (which is usually the case, a
stalk cutter should be run over the
field until all stalks are cut into
small pieces, then run a disk harrow
over the field tapping half way each
time. If the field is then not free
from stalks and clods, harrow it
again. 1t will not be necessary to
pillow the field unless the soil is very
hard as oats are shallow feeders and
do not require deep seed bed 1t
is very essential that the best seed
that can be obtained be sOWn. they
should be of large plump, uniform
size, and of a bright clean color, free
from smut and foreign seeds. 1t is
always a good idea to treat all seed
oats for smut just before planting, a
good method is to soak them in a
solution made of one pound of for
maldchyde in 20 gallons of water.
AS soon as the seed become thorough
~ soaked spread them out on a sheet
VI clean floor and allow them to
dry by stirring with a stick or shovel
Every few minutes. AS soon as all
grains are dry they are ready to sow.
Use from two to three bushels of
seed per acre in drill, and three or
four If broadcast. 1t is a very good
2Ian to run roller over fields that
are soWn on the level or broadcast,
this packs the soil firmly around the
seed and lessons the danger of freez-
ing the young plant.
1t has been an idea with a great
many farmers of the South that oats
require no fertilizer, but this is a
mistake, for it is just as important
to fertilize our oats as it is our cot
ton and corn, and when we fail to
do so we not only fall short in yield.
but we reduce the productiveness of
our soil, and this is somthing no
Georgia farmer can afford to do.
2-S-10 mixture made of:
Nitrate Of Soda 22Olbs,
Acid Phosuhate 6 per cent. 10OOlbs.
Acid Phosphate Is per cent. APO lbs
Use from $50 to $50 pounds per
acre at sowing time. Early in March
a top dressing of Cottonseed Meal