360 EXPERIMENTS WITH DIFFERENT 



EXPERIMENTS WITH DIFFERENT VARIETIES OF OATS 



IN 1864 AND 1865. 



By Robert J. Thomson, Grange, Kilmarnock. 



[Premium — Fifteen Sovereigns.] 



As a much greater breadth of oats than of any other cereal is grown 

 in Scotland, it is pre-eminently important that the varieties most 

 suitable for cultivation should be generally known. Any expe- 

 riments, therefore, in which some of the more esteemed varieties 

 are compared with one another, must possess considerable value. 

 Yet it cannot be supposed that any one single experiment, how- 

 ever accurately conducted, can give all the information deside- 

 rated ; for if a number of varieties be sown side by side on a 

 heavy soil, and also in an adjoining field, on a light sandy soil, 

 the probability is that, although they are grown under precisely 

 similar climatic conditions, the variety which yielded the largest 

 return on the clay will not yield the most on the sand. In like 

 manner, a difference in the climate, whether of temperature or 

 rainfall, or both, will materially influence the comparative re- 

 sults, even where the soil is of similar quality ; and where both 

 soil and climate are dissimilar, the results will be still more 

 widely different. We need not wonder, then, to find that in each 

 district some one or two varieties are grown in preference to, and 

 almost to the exclusion of, all others ; and the importance of 

 making comparative trials in each district, and over several 

 seasons, is apparent. 



The Highland Society has for many years endeavoured to 

 encourage such experiments, and, in offering the above premium, 

 wisely made it compulsory that the experiments should extend 

 over at least two years. 



Besides the varying character of the seasons, there are other 

 circumstances which may modify the results — the influence of 

 the seed for example. It is well known that lowland seed sown 

 in a highland district ripens earlier and yields a greater return, 

 and a better quality of grain than the same variety of highland- 

 grown seed ; and it has been remarked that, within certain limits, 

 highland-raised seed sown in the lowlands takes longer to ripen, 

 and produces a less return, and of coarser quality, than the same 

 variety of home-grown seed. It is at least open to question, too, 

 whether the previous cropping of the land, independently of both 

 soil and climate, may not influence the results. Can it be sup- 

 posed that the same order of priority will be maintained after 

 old lea as after one year's pasture, after wheat as after beans, on 

 land cropped for the first time, as on land cultivated for a cen- 



