This is one of the great staple agricultural products of all regions,
sufficiently moist and cool for their successful growth. Oatmeal makes
the most wholesome bread ever eaten by man. For all horses, except those
having the heaves, oats are the best grain; to such horses they should
never be fed--corn, soaked or ground, is best. They are valuable for all
domestic animals and fowls.
_Varieties._--These are numerous. Those called side-oats yield the
largest crops: but of these there are several varieties. The genuine
_Siberian_ oats are tall, heavy, dark-colored side-oats, the most
productive of any known. _Swedish_ oats, and other new varieties, are
coming into notice; most of these are the Siberian, under other names,
and perhaps slightly modified by location and culture. The barley-oats,
Scotch oats, and those usually cultivated, will yield only about two
thirds as much per acre as the true Siberian; the same difference is
apparent in the growth of straw. Oats will produce something on poor
land, with bad tillage, but repay thorough fertilization and tillage as
well as most other crops. Enrich the land, work it deep and thoroughly,
and roll after harrowing. Moist, cool situations are much preferable for
oats: hence, success in warm climates depends upon very early sowing.
Oats sowed as late as the first of July, in latitude forty-two and
further north, will mature; yet, all late oats, even with large straw
and handsome heads, will be found to be only from one half to two thirds
filled in proportion to the lateness of sowing. The entire _profits_ of
an oat-crop depend upon _early sowing_.
Harvest as soon as the grain begins to harden, and the straw to turn
yellow. Allowed to get quite ripe, they shell badly, and the straw
becomes useless, except for manure. Cut with reaper or cradle, and bind:
all grain so cut is more easily handled, thrashed, and fed. Mow no grain
that is not so lodged down that a cradle or reaper can not be used. The
straw of oats cut quite green is nearly as good as hay.