FACTS FOR FARMERS. ON THE GROWTH OF HEAVY OATS.

Waikato Times, Volume VI, Issue 326, 16 June 1874, Page 2

FACTS FOR FARMERS. ON THE GROWTH OF HEAVY OATS.

It has often struck us n» being not a little remarkable that there should be so many light-weight oati in the market for England, Ireland, and on the Continent. A great portion of this crop will be found to weigh under 401b the bushel, and indeed 381b deems to be tho more general weight of the market. In Scotland — as thi9 grain is grown for human food— the case is different, as there the crop is grown in tho best soil, and like other gram crops great care is taken in the cultivation of tho oat. It may then be taken to be an established fact, that oat growing as horso and cattle feed is not practised with sufficient care to obtain the best results ; and we shall therefore offer a fe»v remarks upon the principles to be attended to in attaining different results. Of all our cereal crops, the oat is the one whose origin is the most clearly established. In the course of a few years, with care, attention, and selection of the wild oat (Avena fatua,) we succeeded in obtaining very fair crop oats, and while doing so we watched the degeneracy of crop oats into wild oats. Now tho grain of Avena fatua in its natural state weighs but 141b to tho bushel; but by choosing the heaviest seed to carry on our experiments, we arrived in six years at a grain weighing 381b per bushel, and subsequent experiments, presently to be detailed, convince us that far better results might have been arrived at from this stock. But in considering the weight of oats, it is necessary to point out that the poorer the oats the greater the disproportion in the relative amounts of meal to husk — the former, indeed, increasing with the increase of weight of the samples. In an article on the Composition of Oats in Morton's Cyclopajdia of Agriculture, by Dr Voelcker, we find the following : -The proportion of husk varies in different samples of oats I more than in any other of our generally cultivated coreals. Not only is the quantity of meal produced by different kinds of oats very various, but different samples of the same kind furnish different quantities of husk and meal, according to I the mode of culture, season, soil, and manure. Boussingault obtained ... JJJ ° { ™ ea> } ... , i )22 of husk (air-dry) ") 58-8 of meal (dry) Hermatadt C 34,-2 of husk (dry) J 7-0 of water Yoscl 1661 66 of meal >34 of husk (air-dry) Norton I 76 28 of meal ) 23-68 of husk (air-dry) Now those figures are sufficiently expressive of differences, but they do not point to the important fact of the sorts operated upon— a point which is more clearly settled by the following : — Dr Voelcker obtained From black English oats ... j ffJ|J °< ™* From white Scotch oat, ... } jgs °J »J Here, then, in Scotch oats, which the analysis i»hows to be good, the meal is, as near as may be, half the weight of the husk ; whilst in the poorer black oat the meal is a little over one-fourth of the seed, nearly three-fourths being husk. Now as these estimates do not mention tho weights per bushel of the grain operated upon, we determined to make a careful analysis of these parts in oats of our own that we could weigh, and we got the following results :— From blnck Tartarean oats, 401b bushel : From the farm, obtained from 100 ) Meal 28 grains seeds j Husk 16 „ 44 „ From white potato oats, 501b bushel. From the farm, obtained from 100 ) Meal 40 grains seeds J Husk 20 „ 60 „ These great differences point to the ease with which the separation of meal and husk was done ; in fact the husk was separated from each seed so carefully that no amount of powdering or grinding eouJd do it so effectually. The difference between 44 and 60 points to the difference in size of the thin grain of the black and the plump grain of the white oats, and the fact of the latter, which weighed 501b per bushel, yielding two-thirds meal, shows the great value of the better kinds when compared with the poorer ones. It was, then, the wide difference to be observed in the oat crop that induced us to look carefully to the results in each crop, and if possible to trace the cause, and in so doing, we have arrived at the following conclusions : 1. Liglit seed, say from 38>b to 401b will produce a light graiu for two seasons : (a) tho quality of the progeny will usually be that of tho parent : and (&) thin oats have twice the num'-er of seeds to a given measure than plump ones ; nrnl'in order to test this we counted an ounce of each of the following measured in a tall thin upright measure— loz of potato oats, 501b bushel, gave 38l seeds ; lozof Waterloo oats, 441b bushel, gave G2B seeds. Here, then, while two bushels of the first, as seed to the acre, would be tlnn sowing, the same quantity of the latter would be thick seeding. 2. The best and heaviest seed that can bo procured 19 the cheapest to sow, ns it will not be too thick at the s&me rate of towing, and each seed w ill be likely to bring n strong plant, and thus to prodvee a good measure of heavy seed. 3. In our practice wo have found that the heaviest oais used as feed not only produce a crop of like character in this respect, but also a greater measure per acre. Here, however, we confess (hat some of our neighbours disagree. They say that they can produce sacks moie per acre of poor black oats than they can of heavy white ones, and hence any quality is to them good enough for seed ; at the same tijno when we come to ask if they have ever gone to the expenso of the belt white seed, we arc bound to confess that in no ease We we received an affirmative answer. \\ 0 have a lively recollection of a neighbour sowing Waterloo oats in a field adjoining ours, with a crop of potato oats. Well, at harvest time our friend remarked, ' Your oats is as good again as mine ; whiit can be the cause ? ' On looking into them the cante was soon visible : to every two of our tall stems, of the size of good strong goosequills, there were in our neighbour's field ten goosequills. We therefore suggested th.t they were too thick, when it came out that, because it was a thin poor sample, somewhere about a sack andji half of seed had been drilled to the acre, while our own crop was drilled at the rate of two bushels to the acre— not of thin, poor seed, but of plump seed, weighing 481b to the bushel. B In sowing oats, then, we always procure the best and heaviest seed we can 5 and we further make * rule of again and ngain screening all the smaller grains from the bulk ; and the result is that, though we do not point to pedigree oats, yet by using the best seed in the market, and selecting, as it were, only the best from this, we always secure a good crop of this grain far superior in weight and quality to that of any of our neighbours. — The Field.

Mr L. B. Arnold treats briefly but with pertinence on tin bad practice of keeping milk close-covered. He says whil< the animal warmth is escaping it should hnre plenty of air, that the germs of decay are held in a putrefactive yeast, and this can be killed by oxygen. When milk has to be sent a distance to town for sale, he has invented a kind of stopper that will allow the air to com© to the milk, yet prevent the milk from slopping over from the tossing of the vehicle He thinks much of the mischief of floating curds and tainted cheese and and bursting bandages can be forestalled by beginning betimes, and treating tbe milk right when it first comes from the cow. la order to make the most and best butter in hot weather it is particularly necessary to cool the milk immediately after milking. Milk in tin pails ; have a tub similar to a washtub for each pail ; set the pails in the tubs filled with cold water from a good spring or well ; stir the milk and the water every few minutet till the milk is about as cool as tbe water. If you can got the milk quite cold before setting, nnd sot shallow in the pans, it is better not to let the pans stand in water while the cream it rising, as the cream will be all up before the milk becomes very thick. Skim as little milk as possible with the cream, as that is tbe great secret about quick churning. My plan of washing butter, says an old dairyman of 40 years experience, is probably new. I use a plain crank-churn ; goes by hand ; average time. 20 minutes for large, 12 for small churnings. Ido not claim to make more or bettor butter from the same cream than with a dash-churn, but I do claim that I enn do the work with one half the time and labor. Much of this saving is caused by the convenience oi washing, getting rid of the buttermilk water, and in working the butler. As soon as I discover that the butter begins to separate I put in a quart of rold water ; this is to thin the milk, which will cause it to free itself more readily from the butter. I then churn until the particles are about tho size of a largo pea. I then draw off the milk and put in a gallon of water, churn, and draw again, and sometimes put in one moro washing. The common way is to churn until the butter is about one solid mass 5 but how is the water to take effect on the inside of these large lumps of butter ? I should about as soon think of washing the inside of a glass bottle by washing the outside. Tbe Farmer* Magazine gives a sketch of tho plough which carried off the firtt prize for a " pcnernl purpose plough" at the Hull meeting of tho Koyal Agricultural Society of England, 1873. The implement is exceedingly light, nnd Messrs Ball and Sons, the maker*, have for several years directed their attention to the task of lessening t.lie weight of all the ploughs manufactured at their works Tho plough is provided with n skim coulter ; this, although indispensable to clean farming, is rarely met with in co'onial nlr>u<*hs. The Farmer's Magazine says :— " At Hull, Messrs Bull and Sons, whose works are at Rothwell, near Ketteriucj, took tho first prize for wheel-ploughs not exceeding 2icwt., the first prize for wheel-ploughs not exceeding 3cwt., and the second prize for wheel-ploughs not exceeding 2cwt. ; os well as a first prize for iron plough and eubsoiler combined ; another first prize for double mouldboard ploughs, and a second prizs for •wing-ploughs. In fact, the success of theEothwell firm was very signal, but by no means unexpected ; for, ns the Journal report puts it, tins is not the first time the well known critorion ploughs have appeared on the prize hsla of tho Eoyal Agricultural Sucicly of England, lfroui

the same authority wo hear that these ploughs ar» ad mirably made, combining strength with quality of workmanship and simplicity' — the rery oharacter for a general purpose plough. Our own report »poke at tuo time to the admirable work done by the Balls, at Hull.