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frequent cultivation. After the plants start to grow, all cultivation should be shallow, for the roots feed near the surface and should not be broken. Cultivate as often as needed to keep down weeds and grass and to keep the ground fine.

Allow potatoes to dry thoroughly before they are stored, but never allow them to remain long in the sunshine. Never dig them in damp weather, for the moisture clinging to them will cause them to rot. After the tubers are dry, store them in barrels or bins in a dry, cool, and dark place. Never allow them to freeze.

Among the common diseases and insect pests that attack the leaves and stems of potato vines are early blight, late blight, brown rot, the flea-beetle, and the potato beetle, or potato bug. Spraying with Bordeaux mixture to which a small portion of Paris green has been added will control both the diseases and the pests. The spraying should begin when the plants are five or six inches high and should not cease until the foliage begins to die.

Scab is a disease of the tubers. It may be prevented (1) by using seed potatoes that are free from scab; (2) by planting land in which there is no scab; and (3) by soaking the seed in formalin (see page 135).

SECTION XLII. OATS

The oat plant belongs to the grass family. It is a hardy plant and, under good conditions, a vigorous grower. It stands cold and wet better than any other cereal except possibly rye. Oats like a cool, moist climate. In warm climates, oats do best when they are sowed in the fall. In cooler sections, spring seeding is more generally practiced.

Fig. 206.
Fig. 206. Oats
Common oats at left;
side oats at right

There are a great many varieties of oats. No one variety is best adapted to all sections, but many varieties make fine crops in many sections. Any variety is desirable which has these qualities: power to resist disease and insect enemies, heavy grains, thin hulls, good color, and suitability to local surroundings.

As oats and rye make a better yield on poor land than any other cereals, some farmers usually plant these crops on their poorest lands. However, no land is too good to be used for so valuable a crop as oats. Oats require a great deal of moisture; hence light, sandy soils are not so well adapted to this crop as are the sandy loams and fine clay loams with their closer and heavier texture.

If oats are to be planted in the spring, the ground should be broken in the fall, winter, or early spring so that no delay may occur at seeding-time. But to have a thoroughly settled, compact seed-bed the breaking of the land should be done at least a month before the seeding, and it will help greatly to run over the land with a disk harrow immediately after the breaking.

Oats may be planted by scattering them broadcast or by means of a drill. The drill is better, because the grains are more uniformly distributed and the depth of planting is better regulated. The seeds should be covered from one and a half to two inches deep. In a very dry season three inches may not be too deep. The amount of seed needed to the acre varies considerably, but generally the seeding is from two to three bushels an acre. On poor lands two bushels will be a fair average seeding; on good lands as much as three bushels should be used.

Fig. 207.
Fig. 207. Harvesting Oats

This crop fits in well, over wide areas, with various rotations. As the purpose of all rotation is to keep the soil productive, oats should alternate every few years with one of the nitrogen-gathering crops. In the South, cowpeas, soy beans, clovers, and vetches may be used in this rotation. In the North and West the clovers mixed with timothy hay make a useful combination for this purpose.

Spring-sowed oats, since they have a short growing season, need their nitrogenous plant food in a form which can be quickly used. To supply this nitrogen a top-dressing of nitrate of soda or sulphate of lime is helpful. The plant can gather its food quickly from either of these two. As fall-sowed oats have of course a longer growing season, the nitrogen can be supplied by well-rotted manure, blood, tankage, or fish-scrap. Use barnyard manure carefully. Do not apply too much just before seeding, and use only thoroughly rotted manure. It is always desirable to have a bountiful supply of humus in land on which oats are to be planted.

The time of harvesting will vary with the use which is to be made of the oats. If the crop is to be threshed, the harvesting should be done when the kernels have passed out of the milk into the hard dough state. The lower leaves of the stalks will at this time have turned yellow, and the kernels will be plump and full. Do not, however, wait too long, for if you do the grain will shatter and the straw lose in feeding value.

On the other hand, if the oats are to be cut for hay it is best to cut them while the grains are still in the milk stage. At this stage the leaves are still green and the plants are rich in protein.

Oats should be cured quickly. It is very important that threshed oats should be dry before they are stored. Should they on being stored still contain moisture, they will be likely to heat and to discolor. Any discoloring will reduce their value. Nor should oats ever be allowed to remain long in the fields, no matter how well they may seem to be shocked. The dew and the rain will injure their value by discoloring them more or less.

Oats are muscle-builders rather than fat-formers. Hence they are a valuable ration for work animals, dairy cows, and breeding-stock.

SECTION XLIII. RYE

Rye has the power of gathering its food from a wider area than most other plants. Of course, then, it is a fine crop for poor land, and farmers often plant it only on worn land. However, it is too good a cereal to be treated in so ungenerous a fashion. As a cover-crop for poor land it adds much humus to the soil and makes capital grazing.

Fig. 208.
Fig. 208. Rye ready for Cutting

There are two types of rye—the winter and the spring. The winter type is chiefly grown in this country. Rye seeds should be bought as near home as possible, for this plant thrives best when the new crop grows under the same conditions as the seed crop.

Rye will grow on almost any soil that is drained. Soils that are too sandy for wheat will generally yield good crops of rye. Clay soils, however, are not adapted to the plant nor to the grazing for which the plant is generally sowed. For winter rye the land should be broken from four to six inches. Harrows should follow the plows until the land is well pulverized. In some cold prairie lands, however, rye is put in with a grain-drill before a plow removes the stubble from the land. The purpose of planting in this way is to let the stubble protect the young plants from cold, driving winds.

Rye should go into the ground earlier than wheat. In cold, bleak climates, as well as on poor land, the seeding should be early. The young plant needs to get rooted and topped before cold weather sets in. The only danger in very early planting is that leaf-rust sometimes attacks the forward crop. Of course the earlier the rye is ready for fall and winter pasturage, the better. If a drill is used for planting, a seeding of from three to four pecks to the acre should give a good stand. In case the seeds are to be sowed broadcast, a bushel or a bushel and a half for every acre is needed. The seed should be covered as wheat seed is and the ground rolled.

Rye is generally used as a grazing or as a soiling crop. Therefore its value will depend largely on its vigorous growth in stems and leaves. To get this growth, liberal amounts of nitrogenous fertilizer will have to be applied unless the land is very rich. Put barnyard manure on the land just after the first breaking and disk the manure into the soil. Acid phosphate and kainite added to the manure may pay handsomely. A spring top-dressing of nitrate of soda is usually helpful.

Rye has a stiff straw and does not fall, or "lodge," so badly as some of the other cereals. As soon as rye that is meant for threshing is cut, it should be put up in shocks until it is thoroughly dry. Begin the cutting when the kernels are in a tough dough state. The grain should never stand long in the shocks.

SECTION XLIV. BARLEY

Barley is one of the oldest crops known to man. The old historian Pliny says that barley was the first food of mankind. Modern man however prefers wheat and corn and potatoes to barley, and as a food this ancient crop is in America turned over to the lower animals. Brewers use barley extensively in making malt liquors. Barley grows in nearly all sections of our country, but a few states—namely, Minnesota, California, Wisconsin, Iowa, and North and South Dakota—are seeding large areas to this crop.

For malting purposes the barley raised on rather light, friable, porous soil is best. Soils of this kind are likely to produce a medium yield of bright grain. Fertile loamy and clay soils make generally a heavier yield of barley, but the grain is dark and fit only to be fed to stock. Barley is a shallow feeder, and can reach only such plant food as is found in the top soil, so its food should always be put within reach by a thorough breaking, harrowing, and mellowing of the soil, and by fertilizing if the soil is poor. Barley has been successfully raised both by irrigation and by dry-farming methods. It requires a better-prepared soil than the other grain crops; it makes fine yields when it follows some crop that has received a heavy dressing of manure. Capital yields are produced after alfalfa or after root crops. This crop usually matures within a hundred days from its seeding.

Fig. 209.
Fig. 209. Barley

When the crop is to be sold to the brewers, a grain rich in starch should be secured. Barley intended for malting should be fertilized to this end. Many experiments have shown that a fertilizer which contains much potash will produce starchy barley. If the barley be intended for stock, you should breed so as to get protein in the grain and in the stalk. Hence barley which is to be fed should be fertilized with mixtures containing nitrogen and phosphoric acid. Young barley plants are more likely to be hurt by cold than either wheat or oats. Hence barley ought not to be seeded until all danger from frost is over. The seeds should be covered deeper than the seeds of wheat or of oats. Four inches is perhaps an average depth for covering. But the covering will vary with the time of planting, with the kind of ground, with the climate, and with the nature of the season. Fewer seeds will be needed if the barley is planted by means of a drill.

Like other cereals, barley should not be grown continuously on the same land. It should take its place in a well-planned rotation. It may profitably follow potatoes or other hoed crops, but it should not come first after wheat, oats, or rye.

Barley should be

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