FEEDING VALUE OF OATS

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1554, 25 September 1912, Page 10

FEEDING VALUE OF OATS

LINCOLN - : COLLEGE EXPERIMENTS. Some interesting experiments aro being conducted at Lincoln College, Canter-bury,-with a view to finding out the best variety of oats for tho farmer to grow. Twenty-live acres have been reserved for this experiment, and sixteen varieties of oats have been grown—all under the same conditions— the"' areas of each variety ranging from one to two acres. About a week iigo ewes with lambs were turned into the paddock, and already, says the "Press,'" an'instructive demonstration has been given of tho likes and dislikes of the sheep to the various varieties of oats. After the paddock has ken fed down sufficiently it will be shut up' and the crop allowed to mature. When ripo the crops will., be cut and each vnriety of oats will be threshed and weighed separately so as to show which gives the greater yield iii grain and straw. Notice will be taken of the suitability of the different varieties for chafiiing, and samples of tho straw will be led to.cattle and horse's to see which is appreciated most, from which t the palatubility of the different sorts may be deduced.

The varieties that have been sown are as follow:—Gartons, Island Slagce,Black Tartar, Sandy. Duns, Kent' Birlie, White .Tartar, Potato, Black Lxceisior, Algerian; Banner, Black Scotch, Danish. Joanette, Canadians, and Sparrowbills. Taking the plots in tho order sown the Gartons showed up the best from tho sheep's point of view, and the plots of this variety have been eaten bare. •Tteir liking for this oat as green feed is strikingly demonstrated where other varieties have encroached upon the Gartons, through irregularity in drilling, for the former have been left severely alone. The Island Slageo oat had received u fair amount-of attention'but the next plot, Block Tartars, was hardly touched at'all. Sandy, a Scotch oat supposed to do well on v'erv poor soils, had been well raten down. "Duns were' rathor neglected, Kent Birlie- were almost untouched,' \\hite Tartars were well eaten, and Potato oats were, to a great extent, neglected. . Tho Black Excelsior vnriety had been sown partly with a thick seeding (by mistake.) and partly with a thin seeding; the oats growing from the thin-seeding had been fairlv well eaten by the sheep; while tho thickly-seeded plot was practically untouched. Tho Algerians wore well eaten down, and so were the Banners, which are very like Gartons, but the Black Scotch, which have a shorMow habit of growth similar to Duns, were hardly touched. iii '. ' The Danish were rather neglected, as were the Joanctte, though five or six seasons ago the sheep seemed to prefer Joanctte and do better on it than most others. The Canadians were not liked very much, and the Sparrowbills were nearly untouched.

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