53^ Advantages df sowing Oats hihead of Barley. Dec* 



of courfe 21 5,042 cubic inches, and confiding of eight gallons of 

 !2688. 



A Meafure of capacity for corn is abfiird, as is avoirdupois 

 xveight, Troy only being lawful. An EnoHIh acre contains 

 43,560 fquare feet ; a Scotch 55.^53,6 ; an Irilh 70,560 ; a Pa- 

 ris arpent 3^400 royal feet ; a ^omTLXijugerum 269305,6 Eng- 

 lifli feet. The Englifh foot being fuppofed looo, the Paris is 

 io68, tlie Roman 967, the Greek 100,724. 



To THE CONDUCTOR OF THE TARMER's MAGAZINE. ' 

 StR, 



I HAVE long entertained an opinion that a greater be- 

 nefit may be gained from cultivating oats than barley, pro- 

 vided the same preparation was bestowed ; therefore have al- 

 most entirely thrown the last mentioned grain out of my rota- 

 tion. Circumstances^ however, often occasioned sorne fields 

 not to be re?.dy at the usual period of oat-seed time, such as 

 unconsumed turnips, land previously in pease not being pro- 

 perly prepared, &c. and these were generally reserved for a 

 barley-crop. The increased malt-tax, and the consequent 

 depression of barley prices, induced me, last year, to try oats, 

 so far back as the 1 8th of May, and 1 now trouble you with 

 the result. 



I had a small field under flax in 1802, and which, as usual 

 with land after that crop, was far from being in good order. 

 It got the first furrow in autumn, was cross ploughed about 

 the first of April, and received three other ploUghings, toge- 

 ther with sufncient harrowing, rolling, and hand-picking. I 

 then slightly dunged the field, seed-furrowed it immediately, 

 and sowed early Dutch or Friesland oats. The seed, as al- 

 ready said, was sown on the 1 8th of May ; but, from the 

 dryness of the weather, did not appear above ground till the 

 middle of June. Notwithstanding which delay, the crop was 

 cut on the nth of September, there having only interv^ened 

 J 16 days betwixt sowing and shearing. 



'I'he crop was a tolerable one, as last season went. I do 

 not mean, however, to lay any stress upon this circumstance ; 

 but merely to shew that an early variety of oats may be suc- 

 cessfully cultivated at a period more advanced than generally 

 imagined. It may be alledged, that the trial was favoured 

 by an early harvest ; but it must also be attended to, that the 

 intense drought prevented vegetatioTi for a long while. Prc- 

 bably the benefit gained from the earliness of harvest, only 

 compensated the waste of time originally sustained from the 

 hJiV&rity of the dcought. Yours, &:c. 



A Rural Oeconomisi. 



