The Glasgow courier., 1916-03-24
NAKED OR HULL-LESS OATS

NAKED OR HULL-LESS OATS
The department has occasional nj :
quiries regarding the yields which
can be obtained from naked, or hull
less oats and the uses which can be
made of this grain. The hull-less
oats differs from the ordinary oats
in that the grain threshes free from
the hull instead of remaining closed
in it. In appearance the kernels are
practically identical with those of or
dinary oats from which the hull has
been removed. The growing plant
looks like common hulled oats, except
that there are three to five more
flowers in each spikelet instead of
two or three. Usually all except one
or two kernels in each spikelet are
very small. The several varieties of
hullless 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 hundred years or more in
the United States, but they have
never become commercially impor-
tant either in Europe or America.
In fact this grain is grown extern
sively only in the dry, mountainous
region in western China c:il Tibet,
where it is quite largely uscI IS hu-
man food. Numerous importations
of stocks of seed from this region
have been made by the department in
recent years, but none of them has
proved to be of commercial value.
There are several reasons why
naked oats have never been able to
compete successfully with the ordin-
ary hulled varieties. All the stocks
which have been imported are very
susceptible to smut and rust, so that
those diseases materially reduce the
Weld There is considerable loss from
shattering if the crop is allowed to
stand until fully matured. Even un-
der the most favorable conditions,
the yield from the hull-less oats is
seldom more than half that which
can be obtained from the good varie
ties of hulled oats. The kernel alb
serbs moisture readily and is very
likely to heat if stored in quantity.
The seed quickly loses its germinat-
ing power, being Quite similar to rye
in this respect.
While the naked oat has never
been of commercial Importance, it
has furnished material for promoters
and in times past has frequently been
sold at unreasonably high prices.
From 1880 to 1880 hull-less oats
were sold in considerable quantities
under the name of Bohemian oats, 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 regarding it, it proved to be of
so little value that soon it disappeared
almost entirely from cultivation in
the United States.
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 hull-less var
ieties now known. For feeding to
larger animals, except hogs, 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 hull-less ones. The hull-less oat
is of some interest to plant breeders,
for it may be possible to produce
high yielding hull-less strains by hy-
brdization with good hulled varieties
but until such strains are produced
there seems to be no reason why the
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