246 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



particular selection, happens to be cultivated in some particular 

 district. 



The potato oat, which I have often met with, is much esteemed 

 The grain is short and white, the panicles well filled, and it is 

 usually without beard or awns. But it is said to become 

 bearded, from being cultivated too long on dry soils without 

 changing the seed. The specimen in the Museum weighed 

 forty-six and a half pounds per bushel. I have known this oat 

 cultivated in the United States ; the first year with success ; but 

 the second year the crop was much less in the number of 

 bushels, and in the weight of the grain. I cannot think there 

 are any insuperable obstacles to its successful cultivation in the 

 Northern United States, unless they should be found in the 

 intense heat of our summers. This sort is said to have had an 

 accidental origin among a field of potatoes, and from that circum 

 stance obtained its name. 



The Hopetoun oat is another celebrated Scotch oat, which 

 had its origin in an accidental selection. It is stated to be not 

 so liable to be shaken out by the winds as the potato oat, and to 

 be a few days earlier ; its straw longer and stiffer, and not so 

 likely to become lodged. It is esteemed better adapted for light 

 than for strong clay soils ; but is more liable to smut than the 

 potato oat. For low meadows and newly-reclaimed lands, it is 

 much esteemed. The sample in the Museum, which Avas se 

 lected from that exposed in the Edinburgh market, weighed 

 forty-six pounds per bushel. 



The black Tartarian oat is much cultivated in England, 

 the white to a considerable extent in Scotland. The straw 

 sometimes reaches six feet in height. These kinds are late, and 

 require a very rich soil. They are well known among us, having 

 all the panicles on one side ; not often found unmixed, but, 

 within my knowledge, successfully cultivated by an eminent 

 farmer, in New Hampshire, on Connecticut River, whose crops 

 average from sixty to seventy bushels per acre. 



I have seen here a very superior oat from Archangel, in Russia, 

 and greatly esteemed by Mr. Dickinson, at whose extensive and 

 beautiful stables, in London, I met with it. He informed me it 

 was cured by fire in the plant, and weighed thirty-eight pounds 

 per bushel. He valued it for feeding, weight for weight, more 

 than any other. It was a small oat, but long in proportion. 



