Wisconsin Herald, And Grant County Advertiser

VALUE OF OATS.—This grain is not
cultivated in any thing like the proportion
that it should be at the south and
west. It is one of our best grain crops
at the north. We easily get from 30
to 60 bushels per acre here, and consider
the straw as highly valuable for
feeding to stock, especially when cut
pretty green, as it may always be, with
lessening the yield of grain. "Chemical
analysis affirms that 195 lbs. of oat
straw are equal to 100 lbs. of good hay;
for the same value it requires 374 lbs.
of wheat straw, and 442 of rye. Oats
are so much more easily cultivated
than corn, we are astonished that the
planters of the south do not pay more
attention to them. They need never
be at the trouble of threshing, unless
they prefer it. All they have to do
is, cut them when the berry is in the
milk, let them cure properly, then tie
them up in small sheaves and stack
them, being careful to leave an air hole
in the centre of the stack, to let off any
fermentation that may arise, and prevent
heat and must. As the oats are
wanted for feed, they should be cut up,
straw and all. A straw-cutter is best
for the purpose; but it may be done
with considerable ease and rapidity
with a sharp broadax, on the head of
a block standing three feet high. Oats
are infinitely better food for horses and
mules—and, indeed, for all work animals—than
corn, more especially in a
hot climate. Corn abounds in oil, and
only makes the animals fat; whereas
oats give them hard, enduring muscle
Not one farmer in a hundred knows or
appreciates this fact, and yet how important
to him. The hardy, muscular
peasantry of Scotland get their enduring
flesh from eating oatmeal. It is
better than Indian corn for hard-working
men, as well as cattle, depend upon
it.