The Glasgow courier., 1916-04-28
HULLEss OATS NOT A SUCCESS

The United States department of
agriculture has occasional inquiries
regarding the yields which can be
obtained from naked or hulless oats
and the uses which can be made of
this grain. The hulless oat differs
from ordinary oats in that the grain
threshes free from the hull instead
of remaining inclosed in it. In appear
ance the kernels are practically iden-
tical with those or ordinary oats from
which the hull has been removed. The
growing plant looks like common hull
ed oats except that there are three to
five or more flowers in each spikelet
instead of two or three. Usually
all except one or two kernels in each
spiklet are very small. The several
varieties Of hulless oats differ in the
size Of the kernel, the presence or.
absence of awns, etc.
Naked oats have been grown for
several centuries in Europe, and for
perhaps a hundred years or more in
the United States, but they have nev-
er become commercially important
either in Europe or America. In
fact, this grain is grown extensively
only in the dry, mountainous region
in western China and Thibet, where it
is quite largely used as human food.
Numerous importations of seed from
this region have been made by the
department in recent years but none
of them has proved to be Of CONNER
cial value.
There are several reasons why nak-
ed oats have never been able to COM
pete successfully with the ordinary
hulled varieties. All the stocks
which have been imported are very
susceptible to smut and rust, so that
these diseases materially reduce the
Weld. There is considerable loss
from shattering if the crop is allow
ed to stand until fully matured. Even
under the most favorable conditions
the yield for hulless oats is seldom
more than half that which can be OBJ
tanned from good varieties of hulled
oats. The kernel ahsorbs moisture
readily and is very likely to heat if
stored in quantity. The seed quickly
loses its terminating power, being
quite similar to rye in this respect.
While the naked cat has never been
of commercial Importance, it has fur
nished material for promoters and in
times past has frequently been sold
at unreasonably high prices. From
1870 to 1880 hulless oats were sold in
considerable quantities under the
name of Bohemian cats, the price
sometimes being as high as so cents
pound. Though this grain was
widely exploited for number of years
and wonderful claims were made re-
garding it, it proved to be of so little
value that it soon disappeared almost
entirely from cultivation in the United
States. j
While there is some demand for oat
kernels without hulls for the feeding
of squads and young chickens, it is
cheaper to buy ordinary oats from
which the hulls have been removed
than to grow any Of the hulless var
ieties now known. For feeding the
larger animals, except hobs, the hull
is an advantage rather than detri-
ment, as it lightens the ration and in
creases the bulk. For several rea-
sons, the miller prefers hulled oats
to hulless ones. The hulless oat is
of some interest to plant breeders, for
it may be possible to produce high
yielding hulless strains by hybridia-
ton with good hulled varieties, but
until such strains are produced there
seems to be no reason why the farm
er should grow this crop.