CROPS. 477 



out upon the ground ; as much is always lost in tiiis way, when 

 they are suffered to become perfectly ripe before cutting. The 

 quantity sown to an acre is four bushels. 



The Flemish farmers obtain very large crops of oats where 

 their land is cultivated with a spade, or otherwise deeply culti 

 vated. With them, the white oat weighs heavier by the bushel, 

 but the yellow oat gives the largest crop, especially on their 

 meadows. They cultivate their oats upon stitches, of a width 

 greater or less according as the soil is wet or dry. They say 

 that oats require not so much manure as barley by one third : 

 but they prefer manure that is well rotted, that the plant may be 

 forced as rapidly as possible. When the plant is a fortnight old, 

 they apply a dressing of liquid manure. Such cultivation is 

 evidently expensive and laborious j but, as in almost all other 

 cases, extra carefulness is compensated by extra product. Some 

 times the liquid manuring is repeated, and even more than once. 

 In planting, they are careful not to bury their seed too deeply, 

 two inches being deemed ample. 



The great evil to which the crop of oats is subject, is the smut; 

 but for this as yet no preventive has been discovered. The 

 sowing of smutty seed is sure to produce it. 



6. MESLIN, or METEIL. The French have a custom of cul 

 tivating what they call meteil, but what is called in English 

 meslin ; that is, a mixture of wheat and rye. The proportions 

 are not very exactly determined. If the land is more favorable 

 to wheat than rye, more of wheat is sown in the mixture than 

 of rye, and the contrary. It yields a good crop when sown after 

 wheat, when wheat following wheat would not be advisable. 

 This culture is far from being universally approved in France 

 but some eminent farmers maintain that the crop is more sure 

 than any other ; that it is not easily lodged, and that neither the 

 rye nor the wheat is so liable to rust or mildew as when culti 

 vated alone. It sometimes happens, likewise, that the season is 

 not favorable to one of the kinds of grain, when the other yields 

 a crop. It follows potatoes to advantage. It is generally con 

 sumed on the farm, in preference to being sent to market ; and 

 it makes a wholesome bread. 



7. MAIZE, or INDIAN CORN. Indian corn, (Zea mays.) here 

 often called Turkey wheat, for what reason I do not know, is 



