Oats are the most useful cereal crop grown in Iowa with the exception of corn. The farmers of the state grow six times as many acres of oats as wheat and more than three times as many as of all the other small grains combined. Of the land devoted to cereals 59.8 per cent is annually planted to com, 32 per cent sown to oats, and 8.2 per cent to wheat, barley, rye, and flax.

The average annual value of the grain crops of Iowa for the five-year period, 1911 to 1915 inclusive, as compiled from the assessors reports for the crop and weather service of the Iowa Department of Agriculture, is $248,399,648. Of this amount the oat crop furnished over 24 per cent, or $60,050,429. To give a definite idea of the relative importance of the cereal crop of the state, the average annual acreage and the average farm value on December 1 for these years are presented in table I and fig. 1 for each of, the important cereal crops.