Following the publication of the Iowa Agricultural Experiment station’s last bulletin on Oats, in March, 1908, a number of additional experiments with this cereal were inaugurated which are now drawing toward completion.
The variety test was increased to cover all of the kinds generally grown in the state; others, some new and some well known, were imported from the irrigated and “dry-farming” districts of the west, from Canada, Michigan, Missouri and Illinois, and from Scotland and England. Other experiments were undertaken upon the size and weight of seed and upon the rate and method of seeding. These, while as yet incomplete, are showing some tendencies which are valuable and should now be made public.
From the variety tests we find certain types adapted to certain soils and conditions. Buying heavy seed in the open market does not show satisfactory returns for the money invested. The value of repeated fanning of seed oats has been overestimated. Longtime tests with drilling vs. broadcasting give more favorable results for the drill. Heavy seeding we find more profitable than is usually considered to be the case
