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4 THE SOUTHERN WORLD, MARCH 1,1882, are much leu liable to depredations of in* sects and vermin. This is obvious to all who have any experience, and needs only to be mentioned. RELATIVE rXIOINO POWER. We come now to consider the relative feed ing power of oats and corn, and here we rely chiefly on the results of actuul experience in feeding the two. We have already seen that analysis indi cates that oats arc su]>erior to corn os u muscular producer. Actual experience abundantly sustains this indication. The feeding power of one hundred pounds of the grain of oats, with its accompanying straw, is found by actual trial to be supe rior to that of the same weigiit of shelled corn, with its corresponding cured blades. Referring again to the gentlemen (queried, one says: "56 pounds of oats are better than 66 pouuds of corn another writes: “One and one-fourth bushels of oats are equal to one bushel of corn;” still another writes: "One.busher of oats and their straw, are equal to one bushel of corn and its fodder,’’ and so on. It is difficult to And a mean of these estimates, so differently expressed. Indeed, nothing short of a series of care fully conducted experiments—such as I have not found at hand—will show the ex act relative feeding power of these two grains. But front my own experience, and that of others with whom 1 have compared notes, i think I may safely say that one and a half bushels of oats, or 48 pounds of clean oats, are equal to one bushel, or 56 pounds of shelled corn. Referring to the proximate analysis given awhile ago, nnd by a little calculating, we And that 48 ]>ounds of oats and 56 pounds of corn will contain albumi noids and carbohydrates as follows: 48 pounds of oats—5.76 pounds of albumi noids and 32.10 pounds of carbohydrates; total, 37.02. 66 pounds of corn—5.60 pounds of albumi noids and 42.00 pounds of carbohydrates; total, 47.00. * We see here that the l'A bushels of oats contain an appreciable excess of albumi noids over the one bushel of corn, while the latter has 9.84 pounds more of carbohydrates than the former. This excess of carbohy drates Is very probably little better than wasted when fed to work stock in worm weather; and when we come to add to the Oats and corn each, its respective straw and fodder, we shall And this apparent deficiency of oats more than made up. It may be as sumed as approximately correct that the 48 pounds of oats will have about 00 to 100 pounds of straw, wliilo the 56 pounds of com will have 25 pounds of fodder and 10 pounds of shucks, or only 35 pounds in all. Well cured oat straw is little, if any, infe rior to the cured com blades, and any de- flciency in this respect is abundantly made up by the much greater quantity. I have not the time nor you the patience, (perhaps) to go further into detail. I think enough has been said to show that VA bush els of oats are at least equal to one bushel of com. RELATIVE PRODUCTIVENESS. I propose next, to consider the relative ' productiveness of land in oats and in com. On this point I And a remarkable agreement in the experience of most farmers, vis: that under similar circumstances an acre of land will produce twice as many bushels of oats as of com. It is understood, of course, that the same care be bestowed in the preparation of the land in each case, the same quantities of ma nure used, and equal care in the selection of varieties of seed; and last, but not least, that the oats be sown at the right time. These conditions I propose to briefly discuss after awhile. If it is true that an acre of land under the circumstances Indicated, will produce double as many bushels of oats as of com, and that 48 pounds of oats (shelled) are equivalent in feeding power to 66 pounds of com, the com parison may be simply made in this way: Take an acre of land which will produce 15 bushels of corn, or 30 bushels of oats, assume (I think it cannot be far wrong) that there will be 68 pounds of good straw ’to each bushel of oats, and 35 pounds of fodder and shucks to each bushel of com, and the ac count will be found thus: 1 acre of oats grain, 30 bushels, or 060 pounds; straw or fodder, 1,240 pounds. 1 acre com grain, 15 bushels, or 840 pounds; Straw and fodder, 525 pounds. Difference.—In grain, 15 bushels or 120 pounds; Straw and fodder, 715 pounds. But we have seen that 1 'A bushels of oats are equal in feeding power, to 1 bushel of com. Then 22K of the 30 bushels of oats produced on one acre, are equal to the 15 bushel*.of com—the whole product of the other acre. This leaves 7]A bushels of oats as a surplus, to the credit of the acre in oats on the grain account We should now take account of the difference in the amount of available straw on the one hand, and fodder and shucks on the other. I have not been able to lay my hand on an unalysis of corn fodder—as we call it—the cured blades of the stalk, stripped in the usual way; nor is such analysis necessary to the practical so lution of the question. For myself, I have been in the habit of estimating com fodder os a very valuable forage.—superior to cured oat straw; though some consider them about equal. But even granting that fodder is one third more valuable, we still have a large surplus of oat straw from the acre of oats— amounting to 540 jnmnds in excess of the amount necessary to equal the 525 pounds of fodder. On the whole the balance in favor of the acre of oats is 1 X A bushels of oats and 540 pounds of straw—a very substantial margin of proflt on the credit side of the oat ac count, which multiplied by the number of acres in a moderate sized crop would amount to a goodly sum. RELATIVE COST Of PRODUCTION. Our minds are very naturally led, at this moment, to enquire into the cost of pro ducing an acre of each grain respectively, a factor of great importance in estimating the relative value of the two crops. I have no accurate data upon which to base a very reliable estimate, but the cost is certainly in favor of oats—how much I cannot say. Among the questions—already alluded to—was this: “What is the comparative cost of producing 100 bushels of oats and 100 bushels of corn 7" This was equivalent to asking the comparative cost of one bushel of each. The average of the replies to this question, puts the cost of producing one bushel of oats at 'A the cost of producing 1 bushel of corn. (Since the foregoing was written a letter from Mr. Frank White, of Hancock county, was received, in which he estimates the comparative production of 1 acre each of corn and oats as 3 bushels of oats to 1 of corn, and the cost of 1 bushel of oats at 1-5 that of 1 bushel of com.) If this be true, then, as VA bushels of oats are found to be equal to 1 bushel of com in feeding value, it will cost twice as much to produce any given quantity of corn as it would to produce its equivalent of oats I And this result does not include the value of the txcess in quantity of the straw over the quantity of the fodder. I am willing to disregard this item in view of any possible error in the calculation, which may have been made on other points. The general conclusion then is, that it costs only half as much to feed work ani mals on oats as it costs to feed the same ani- been mals on corn. CONDITIONS OF SUCCESS. As I have already intimated this general conclusion depends upon the observance of certain conditions, the use of the best va rieties of seed, sowing at the proper time, and in general the same care os a good far mer will bestow on a crop of corn. It Is just at this point that farmers have generally failed. Every good farmer exer cises more or less care in the selection of a variety of corn that seems best adapted to his purpose. He carefully picks the best ears, shells them by hand, and takes every precaution to be sure that this seed corn is all right. He goes further: be bas hi* own opinion os to the proper time to plant. Every one knows that corn may be planted in succession from the 1st of March to the 4th of July. But we all know that after the middle of the month of March in middle Georgia, taking the average of seasons, the probabilities of a good yield of com fall off very rapidly, excepting, of course, on low lands that are not in a condition to plant ear ly, In short, every farmer makes it a point to plant his com crop, as noarly as providen tial circumstances will permit, at just th e right lime that time which has been found by experience to be best calculated to Insure a good yield. He does not consult mem convenience with regard to other operations of the farm, but every effort is made to have the soil, seed-corn, fertilizers, etc., ready before the set times arrives. The same prac tice should prevail in sowing oats. The ground should be selected, the seed and fer tilizers provided, and all arrangements made in anticipation of a certain appointed day, on which the sowing should commence and continue, without any unnecessary inter mission to the end. So far from following this course, it has long been the habit of Georgia farmers to sow small grain, particularly oats, at a “con venient season.” The work was not allowed to interfere with the picking and meeting of cotton, and was deferred until everything else was done, often until February or March, and still oftener “indefinitely post poned." This habit, in a great measure, is account ed for by the fact that we have never relied on oats mainly as a food crop, but only as incidental and supplemental, or to give a little change of diet in June; for not one farmer in ten, even of those who cultivated oats, produced one month’s supply. I repeat, that what has been said or may be said in support of the proposition, that oats are more reliable and productive than corn, is based upon the observance of the conditions specified, and not upon the actu al average results as observed, or as shown by census or other general reports. VARIETIES OF OATS. We will now proceed very briefly to dis cuss some of these conditions. First, as to varieties: It may bo sufficient to say that the expe rience of the past has shown that the great est evil to be guarded against in the culture of oats is nut, and that tills evil is greatly abated by the discovery and pretty general dissemination of the rust proof oat. I am not disposed, even if prepared to do so, to give a history of the several species or vari eties, or even of this particular variety. Suffice it to say, that the red rust proof ac cording to the general opinion, is the typi cal rust proof oat and that it originated in Mexico and perhaps more remotely in Central America. Whatever its origin, ithasproved a very great boon to the South, and its in troduction has been directly instrumental in more than quadrupling the oat crop in Georgia within the last ten years. The Burt rust proof oat is said to have originated from the red rust proof. This va riety is earlier than the original, equally, if not more prolific, and equally proof against rust. The grain is of lighter color and weighs leas to the bushel. Another variety that has met with considerable favor in North and some parts .of Middle Georgia, is the winter grazing oat. As implied by the name, it will bear grazing well, and is very hardy to resist the effects of hard freezes, but is not rust proof. But we must hasten. TIME TO SOW OATS. According to the judgment (based upon experience) of a large majority of suc cessful oat growers, the fall, by all odds is the most favorable time for sowing. When sown a month or more before the winter sets in in earnest, the plants have time to establish themselves so firmly in the soil, that they will successfully resist anything short of an extreme degree of cold, which is about the only mishap or evil to be dreaded or feared when sown at this season. The great point gained in fall sowing is the ad vantage that is taken of the winter and early spring rains. This guarantees against failure from the severe droughts of early summer, which are so often ruinous to spring sown crops. Some advocate sowing in the first twelve days after Christmas, but I could never see any special advautage in that particular time. Sown at that time they are less liable to be destroyed by freez ing than late fall sown, and are more secure against rust and May droughta, than spring sown. I think the safer practice is to sow a full Fall crop—saving some seed over—and if the crop be killed then sow in January or February. Even if a Fall crop be killed, the destruction will generally occur during the latter half of December or the first half of January—leaving ample time to sow the same land again, or elsewhere. The actual loss is but the seed, as the plowing and har rowing are not thrown away. Assuming that it is better to sow in the Fall, it is not easy to give a general rule as to the best month. About the best I have seen is this: Sow as long before the first of January as the main crop of Indian corn is planted after the first of January. For in stance : if, the usual time for planting the main crop of corn in any given latitude be March, then sow oats in October; if com is planted in,February, sow oats in November; if com is planted In April, sow in September. I think this rule will apply with little varia tion, to any portion of the South. MANURINO OATS. Observation shows that there is no crop on which suitable manures or fertilizers give better results than when applied to oats. It may be said, generally, that any fertilizer that is good for com, will also be suited to oats. Both require ammoniated manures, with this difference in favor of oats: that a larger application can be made without danger of injury, because oats grow and ma ture before the usual drouth and heat of sum mer comes on. Cotton seed is admirably adapted to oats, with the exception that they cannot be applied to an eurly crop un less effectually killed or prevented from ger minating. Ammoniated superphosphate of limo is an excellent fertilizer for oats, and may be most conveniently applied os follows: Wet one or more bushels of oats thoroughly in u large tub or trough, allow the surplus water to drain away and then stir in the desired quantity of fertilizer. Fifty to 100 pounds per bushel may easily be applied to or mixed with the seed in this way, and will be found very convenient thus to mix and sow all together. STATISTICS OF PRODUCTION. Before leaving the subject, it will bo inter esting to all, and encouraging to many who hear me, to observe the relative production of oats and corn in this State and in the whole Unitrd States foroacli decennial iicriod since the year 1850. From the census re turns I have compiled the following table, showing tile total population (expressed in thousands) of the United States nnd Georgia, the total numberof horses nnd mules in each respectively, the number of bushels of oats and corn (expressed in thousands) produced in each, the calculated amount of euch grain per capita of population and per capita of horses and mule# for each census yenr: 11111 i 1 f -■ 1 * ? - B 1 ? 1 IlSiiSSS IS i! r, § g P 8 1? g § i I : J H 1 § o srS W • c. g?!r © fg ° • a Is i 1 ! 1 1 s i I 1 | 1 s gSsSgigS 3 1 c E. ~ E. S&rBgBSJS H M o W is 9 X 3 7 ' 3 H Si 1 ?- S 1 •» s i 5 2 a 5 t g §2 ® ag g || 5 » 8 a £ f. B 5 8 if t ll g In conclusion, allow me to say that I am conscious of failure on my part to do jus tice to the subject. In preparing this crude essay, many thoughts havo suggested them selves to my mind, and have even run down to the pen’s point, but lmvo been arrested and put aside for want of time to properly elaborate and investigate. I would have been glad to enlarge ujioii the advantages of oats in rotation, the facility such a crop gives in any scheme for the improvement of the soil. If I shall succeed in directing the attention of this convention more strongly to the importance of the subject discussed, and shall stir up increased interest in out culture, I will feel amply repaid for my time and labor. 1N41IIBY COLUMN. C., Clayton county—“Are those who were opposed to stock law bound, by the vote of the majority, to come under its provisions? This law goes intg effect first of May; how can I best prepare for it?” Answer : Of course you lire bound by the vote of the majority. The General Assembly made it a law subject to the adoption of a majority of the voters of the county, and to take effect six mouths after such aduption. At the end of that six months it is of force In the county so adopting it, and must be obeyed by all. The only crop you can plant now to pro vide food for your cattle is oats. You should have already sowed a liberal area in these; if not, sow at once. Select also an acre of good land for every animal—horses, mules and cattle—you propose to keep, prepare well andsowa mixture of red clover, orchard