Wild Oats 



'79 



circumference and of the following height : — 



ft. in. 



1. Ill length from the root to the last flower 8 o 



2. ditto ditto 7 7 



3. ditto ditto 7 5 



Average 7 S 



These specimens present the following 

 ascertained numbers of seeds : — 



1. Seeds in a single wild oat 470 



2. ditto ditto 296 



3. ditto ditto 260 



1026 



Average 342 



In a crop of potato oats ; which is this 

 year very fine, we have specimens of equal 

 dimensions, and both on this and the neigh- 

 bouring farms maybe seen gigantic specimens 

 of the wild oat towering above the corn crops. 



Now as a humid season is favourable to 

 the oat crop, so it favours the growth of the 

 wild oat, and hence the reason why this latter 

 has made itself particularly conspicuous 

 during the last two years. In as far as our 

 observations go, it is always present, but 

 it would appear that, as a favourable season 

 augments its growth, and the development of 

 its seeds, so the plant excites an unusual 

 degree of observation, while it furnishes the 

 true elements of its increase in an augmented 

 ratio. 



Our own acquaintance with this plant was 

 first made in ^Vorcestershire, when on a visit 

 to a farmer friend. Our way to church was 

 through a field of beans, where, seeing this 

 fine grass towering above the bean crop, we 

 gathered a specimen, which was duly de- 

 posited in our hat, which has often served as 

 a botanical vasciilii/n. On corning from 

 church we were seriously taken to task by 

 the farmer as follows : " Friend, friend, what 

 is the good of your going to church if you 

 don't leave your wild oats behind you ? " This 

 litde episode served to fix the remembrance of 

 this plant upon the memory, as also the 

 seasons when it is most prevalent, for when- 



ever we have been among grasses, wild oats 

 has been a favourite species for observation, 

 as they occur on the mud flats or warp 

 lands of the older estuarine conditions of the 

 Severn in Gloucestershire, or on the rich lias 

 and new red marls of Worcestershire. On 

 the sandy loams of the ^oolites of Dorset, it 

 is wonderfully uniform in aspect, with only 

 the difference that it is usually larger in 

 moist than in dry seasons. 



The plant under review is known to 

 botanists under the name of Avena fattia, 

 which means the silly, simple, fooHsh, or wild 

 oat, by which latter name, and that of 

 " Haver," it is recognized in the country. 

 This name is from the Saxon, derived through 

 the German word of "Hafer," oats, and 

 "Haver "means in the north to talk non- 

 sense, and, as applied to the oat, means 

 foolish or useless oat. 



This wild oat then is a truly agrarian weed, 

 only tracking arable cultivation ; and very 

 early, indeed^ our observations upon it led to 

 the conclusion that it was a degenerate oat. 

 Farmers had always held the notion that it 

 was dangerous to grow oats in some places, 

 as they left behind a plague of wild oats. 

 We therefore concluded that, if this were so, 

 by careful cultivation and selection, the wild 

 oat would be advanced to a crop oat, and 

 our experiments conducted for a few years 

 convinced us of the truth of this theory \ and 

 subsequent examinations of oats gone wild 

 on the one hand, and a crop so poor as to be 

 next to wild on the other, soon convinced us 

 that while the A.fatua may be advanced to 

 the A. satiia or cultivated oat, the latter by 

 degeneration may be converted into A. fatua 

 wild oat. It would, however, make this ar- 

 ticle too long to enter into a description of 

 all our experiments upon this subject, and 

 besides, it could hardly be made intelligible 

 without drawings, we must then address our 

 remarks to our correspondent's more par- 

 ticular questions. 



I St. " How does it happen that after land 

 has been cultivated beyond its usual depth 

 wild oats always appear to come more thickly 

 than before ?" 



2d. "How are these pests to be got rid of?" 



