Abstract
ALTHOUGH oats are still an important crop in Wales, a variety suitable to the particular conditions of the hill districts has been a long-felt want. Up to the present, Avena strigosa or Ceirch Llwyd has been grown on this type of land, and although it is essentially a variety for wet districts and poor land, it has the great disadvantage of not yielding a good sample, being heavily awned and consequently difficult to thresh. Breeding experiments with A vena strigosa carried out at the Welsh Plant Breeding Station have, however, resulted in the production of a new variety, Ceirch Llwyd Cwta S. 171, which is described in Leaflet Series S. No. 3, issued by the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth (price Is.). The chief point of interest lies in the fact that it is awnless, but in addition it yields well or better than the older variety, the grain is heavier, the bushel weight higher and the protein content greater; finally, it shows a resistance to both loose and covered smut. The amount of seed available for sowing this spring (1936) is about five tons, the wholesale price being 20s. per cwt. Co-operative societies, merchants and farmers interested in the new variety are asked to communicate with the Station at the earliest opportunity, as unless accurate estimation of the demand is obtained, it will be impossible to gauge the acreage that should be sown down this spring in order to meet the seed requirements of the succeeding year. At the end of the leaflet some account is given of the Association of Farmers for the Growing and Marketing of Seed Oats in Wales.
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Seed Oats for Hill Districts. Nature 137, 735–736 (1936). https://doi.org/10.1038/137735c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/137735c0