Pamela Hale, age 10, of Orlando, Fla., for her question:
WHAT EXACTLY IS OATMEAL?
Oatmeal is a food that is prepared from a cultivated grass that we call oats. Chiefly a breakfast cereal, it is wholesome, good tasting and it leads nearly all other grain products in food value.
Oatmeal is made by removing the outer husk of the oat kernel. The groat, or inner portion of the kernel, is scoured to remove some of the outer skin. Then it is partially cooked by steaming and finally it is roiled before it is packaged in boxes or sacks.
In an average bowl of breakfast oatmeal you will be receiving about 68 parts carbohydrates, 16 parts protein, seven parts fat, two parts minerals and seven parts water. In addition, oatmeal is a good source of the important vitamin B 1.
Oats belong to the same family of plants as wheat, rye, barley, corn and rice. Actually, all of them are members of the grass family named Gramineae. Almost 100 varieties of oats are being raised at the present time in various parts of the world.
When fully grown, the oat stalk is from two to four feet long. It is slender and ends in groups of graceful branches called "spikelets." The grain grows at the end of the spikelets.
A husk protects each seed. The spikelets usually spread out from all sides of the stem. In one variety, however, called horsemane oats, the spikelets grow all on one side.
Oats are best suited to a cool, moist climate. But they are grown throughout the temperate zones of the world. Some types even grow near the Arctic Circle.
Oats grow in almost every state and province in the United States and Canada. The oat growing areas in Minnesota are closely followed, in order, by Alberta, Saskatchewan, South Dakota and North Dakota. Russia is the leading oat growing country followed, in order, by the U.S., Canada, Germany and Poland.
Spring is the best time for planting oats. Planting is called sowing.
In some parts of the world where mild winters are found, such as some of the southern U.S. states, oats are sown in autumn.
In places where oats are sown in the spring, the ground should be plowed the autumn before. It should also be harrowed soon after the frost is out of the ground.
The seeds may be sown in "drills," or close rows, or it may be scattered over the field. Two to three bushels of seed per acre are usually planted.
The crop is usually harvested in July. Reaping times at different latitudes may be a few weeks apart.
The average yield of oats in the U.S. is about 50 per acre. In the U.S., a barrel of oats must weigh 32 pounds.
Scientific methods of cultivation are raising this average. In Belgium, Great Britain, Switzerland and The Netherlands, for example, the average yield is more than 100 bushels per acre.