CROPS. 245 



not ; and this dish is, perhaps, never absent from a Scotch table, 

 and, with a large portion of the Scotch, constitutes their principal 

 diet. In England and Scotland, oats and beans form the chief food 

 of their horses, with a comparatively very small portion of hay ; 

 and so many are kept for labor, sport, or pleasure, that the demand 

 is immense. A pound of good oats is understood to give as 

 much nourishment to a horse as two pounds of hay. 



Oats are not cultivated very differently from the methods pre 

 vailing with us. They are most commonly sown broadcast, but 

 sometimes are drilled, where the land is foul with weeds, and 

 sometimes dibbled. When drilled, four bushels of seed are sown 

 to an acre ; when broadcast, it is not uncommon to sow six bushels : 

 for though oats, like wheat, throw out side shoots, or, as it is 

 termed here, tiller, yet the heads from the side shoots are seldom 

 of much value. The crop varies from thirty to sixty, and some 

 times eighty, bushels. It is strongly advised to cut oats early, as 

 soon as the stalk turns yellow under the head, and even while 

 the other parts of it are green. None are lost, in such case, by 

 shaking out ; the grain itself is brighter, and the straw is saved 

 in a much more palatable condition for the animals to whom it 

 is fed. 



When grass land is broken up, oats are almost always the first 

 crop taken. In this case, the land is ploughed and the sward 

 completely inverted in the autumn, and then harrowed or lightly 

 ploughed in the spring. In this way, the oats have the benefit 

 of the decaying vegetable matter turned under. The oats, 

 when sown broadcast, are most often harrowed in ; but when 

 ploughed, it is done with a light furrow, as they will not germi 

 nate when deeply covered. Oats are sometimes sown after 

 turnips which have been fed to sheep folded on the ground. 

 In this case, the ploughing is very light. Those, however, which 

 are grown upon old grass or pasture land broken up, give gener 

 ally much the largest return. Oats are grown upon soils of 

 almost every description, but certainly not with equal success : 

 and a strong, rich loam may be expected to give the best crop. 

 The poorer the soil, in general, the more seed is advised. 



In the admirable Agricultural Museum of the Highland Agri 

 cultural Society there are specimens of forty different kinds of 

 oats ; but it would be useless to give a mere list of names. 

 What is called the common oat is the oat which, without any 

 21* 



