Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1924-11-01
FARM EDUCATION
BY DIR. ANDREW M. SOULE

name. Unfortunately, seed import
ed from other sections and some
times from the north is sold to our
farmers. Such seed is unsatisfac-
tory, and planting it constitutes a
waste of time and money. 1t ought
to be a high crime to sell a farmer
seed of this character. 1t is not
too late to seed this crop in open
burrows in north Georgia during the
next two weeks. In south Georgia,
seeding may be done during the next
three or four weeks. Every FARMER
ought to have an area of five to ten
acres in oats. Personally, 1 believe
that there are, or ought to be, just
as many acres of oats as there are
acres of corn in Georgia. There have
been few years when we needed to
emphasize the cultivation of oats
more than the present one. This IS
because a freeze cut the crop of last
year down to relatively small
amount. Our corn crop is also very
short The oat is our main de-
pendence for securing an early sup
ply Of a concentrate with which to
replace corn in the ration fed our
live stock during the late spring
and early summer months. Our hay
crop is very short this year. No
finer hay can be obtained than that
made from oats, or oats and Vetch
grown together. Get busy, there
fore, and plant a considerable area
of oats. You may have to neglect
something, but you cannot afford
to neglect this matter.
How Should planting be done?
Oats should be seeded on lands that
are we'll prepared as possible. There
is no use expecting the oat crop to
develop, satisfactorily unless it is
given a fair chance to survive the
winter, 1t may not always be nee
essary to break the land. A good
deal depends on seasonal and soil
conditions. Certainly oats may be
planted in cotton fields with good
success where the stalks have al
ready been ripped up and turned
under in the fall to destroy the seed
crop of boil Weevils. The fact is
most of our cotton lands ought to
grow oats to good advantage. This
would insure our rotating crops and
this would be an advantage in fight
ing the boil Weevil if we would make
a systematic effort to turn all the
cotton stalks under early and to q
sufficient depth we would very ma
terially reduce the weevil seed crop
for the ensuing year
BY all means fertilize your oats.
This will be good practice even on
cotton lands. 1t is best to use a
formula containing per cent or
ganlc nitrogen, per cent phos-
phorlc acid, and per cent Potash.
On the sandy lands of south Geor-
Gla, 10 per cent phosphoric acid. 5
per cent potash. and 8 per cent nj
trogen will be a better formula to
use. The minimum application
should be 300 pounds. In most
cases, it. will be better to use 500
pounds. Put the fertilizer under the
drill row when you plant the seed
BE sure. however, to keep the fer
tlllzer from coming directly in con-
tact with the seed.
A single stalk planter may be us. 4.
You may also use one that will
plant three rows Of oats at a time.
You may use grain drill with a
large, heavy hose attached to it.
In that event, I would stop ur,
every other tube so as to plant the
oats in siXteen-inch rows. There is
an idea that this is wasting space. e.
but L do not think so. The oat
crop tillers very freely. 1t is amaz-
ing how a crop seeded in sixteen
inch rows will spread out and occu
Ply and cover the g1bund before
harvest. Let us have oats and
then some more oats. This is the
program with the Saving grace" in
It and which the agriculture of
Georgia needs at this time as never
before in IFS history