OBELISK. 



be els), and the bllow, which is ofUn resorted to of necesaity after a 

 eron of oaU. might be dispeOMd with, a* the weed* have been destroyed 

 ... . . .> , 



Wb*n oaU an town on light land after turnips, which hare been 

 eaten by aheep folded on them, it may be ploughed with a* shallow a 

 furrow a* will turn in the surface : the preparation for turnip* will 

 hare mfietatijr mored the auil ; and the manure of the aheep ahmild 

 not b* buried too deep. On poor moist land oaU are more profitable 

 than barley. Ckrrer and gnm seeds may be eown among them with 

 equal adranUge, a* they will aeldom grow so high as to be laid and 

 mother the young clover ; and barley It Wfy apt to fail on land subject 

 to retain the water. 



la avwiag oat* more aeed it often uwd than of any other grain, 

 because, although the planta tiller where they hare room, the trw of 

 the second ahoote i* weaker, and the grain U not ripe so toon an that of 

 the principal ctem ; but when the planta rue clow and thick, there are 

 DO alien, the main item it atiougei, and the corn it more plump and 

 equal. Six buehela of oaU are often eown in Scotland and Ireland on 

 an acre ; but i( they are drilled, three or four bushel* are sufficient, 

 and when dibbled, which U sometime* the can in Norfolk and Suffolk, 



lee* aeed it ueed. A good preparation of the land is of more 

 ijuence than a superabundance of aeed. 

 In a field where oaU are eown broadcast, and covered by the harrows, 

 many seed* remain exposed to the depredation of birds, which BOOB 

 find them out at a time of the year when food is scarce ; but when 

 they are drilled or dibbled, all the aeed is buried and germinate*, 

 without any loea. When the seed is sown and ploughed in, the same 

 object la attained ; but as the furrow must be shallow in order that 

 the seed may not be buried too deep, the land must have been ploughed 

 before to a considerable depth, unless it be after turnips fed off by 

 aheeri, in which case ploughing the seed in U often considered a good 

 practice : in either case four bushel* of seed per acre is an ample 

 allowance. 



When the ground has been well prepared, there is no necessity for 

 weeding or hoeing the crop as it advances ; but if large weeds appear, 

 such as charlock, May-weed, docks, or thistle*, they must be carefully 

 weeded oat, or else the ground will be so infested with their seeds or 

 roots that it will be difficult to eradicate them afterwards. Oats, when 

 fully ripe, are very apt to shed, and many are lost for want of attention. 

 As soon as the straw turns yellow under the panicle, the oats should be 

 reaped, however green the lower part of the straw may be ; the straw 

 will be better fodder for cattle, and all the com will be saved. OaU 

 are generally mown with a scythe, and raked into heaps to dry like 

 hay ; but this is a wasteful and slovenly practice. A good crop of oats 

 should be reaped, like wheat, close to the ground, and tied in sheaves. 

 This may now be done perfectly by machine ; but if by hand, the 

 scythe, or the heavy hook, or the Hainault scythe, does the work well 

 in the hands of an expert mower, who should be followed by binders, 

 who gather the straw with their bands and lay it regularly on the 

 ground if it be not fit to tie up immediately : the straw should after- 

 wards be tied up into sheaves, and set with the corn uppermost in 

 shocks of ten or twelve sheaves, leaning against each other, and open 

 at bottom, in order to allow the air to pass through. Thus, in a short 

 time the oaU become sufficiently dry to be stacked, or carried immedi- 

 ately into the bam. The produce of an acre of oats varies according 

 to the soil and preparation, from four to eight and even ten or twelve 

 quarters. 



Of the many varieties of oat now in cultivation, the " Poland " may 

 be named for lU early habit and good quality ; the " Potato " oat for 

 quality and productiveness ; the "Hopetoun" and " Sandy" oat* for 

 their bulky growth, abundant yield, and quality: and the "Tar- 

 tarian" (Mack tod white) for a great quantity of comparatively 

 coaree quality. 



OaU ground into a coarse meal form a considerable portion of the 

 food of labourers and many men in the middle ranks of life in Scot- 

 land, Ireland, and the north of England. The meal is simply stirred 

 into boiling water with a little salt, until it becomes of the consistency 

 of a hasty -pudding ; it i* then called porridge ; and when eaten with 

 milk or treacle makes a wholesome and palatable food. It is some- 

 times mixed with the thin liquor of boiled meat, or the water in which 

 cabbage* or kale have been boiled, and acquire* the denomination of 

 beef-broee or kale-broae. When made into a dough with water, and 

 baked on an iron plate in thin cake*, it makes a bread which is very 

 palatable to those who are accustomed to it, and who often prefer it t<> 

 wheaten bread. It* use wan once almost universal in Scotland, which haa 

 in cooseqtMOo* bean called the Land of Cakes. In Germany and Switzer- 

 land the coarsely bruised oatmeal i* put into an oven till it becomes 

 of a brown colour ; it i* then called haber-meel, and it used in broths 

 and pottage*, a* the semolina, made from wheat, is used in Prance and 

 Italy. The coarsely broken grains, after the husk has been removed, 

 form griU, which are extensively used to make gruel for children and 

 invalid* The <|iiality of oat* a* food i* proved by experience, and has 

 been amply illiutrated by scientific research. Its grain contains 40 per 

 cent, of starch, nearly 1 4 of nitrogen compounds, 6 of oil, 6 of sugar, 

 ' 4 of gum, bea.de* 24 of husk, Ac. 



And it* straw contains 1-8 of 



nitrogen compound*, beside* 06 of woody fibre and other organic 

 matters. These figures were ascertained by Boussingault. The chaff 

 <f oaU put into a canvas bag forms a good substitute for feather-beds 



for the poor, and is far more wholesome than feathers, from the ewe 

 with which it may be renewed at little or no cost. 



In some countries the oats are given to horses in the straw, without 

 threshing them ; and where the quantity can be regulated, the practice 

 is good. The hone* masticate the corn better in the chaff, and the 

 straw is wholesome ; but where horses do hard work, they would be 

 too long in eating a sufficient quantity, and it is better to give them 

 oaU threshed ana cleaned, with clover hay cut into chaff. When l.<\- 

 it dear, it is often cheaper to increase the quantity of oats, and to give 

 it with wheat-straw cut fine. In this way very little hay is required. 

 The calculation is easily made when we consider that a pound of good 

 oats gives as much nourishment to a horse as two pounds of the beat 

 clover, or sainfoin hay. i A truss of hay of 56 pounds is therefore 

 equal to 28 pounds of oats ; or a bushel of the best oats will go as far as 

 one truss and a half of hay; and if this quantity U worth 4.-.. which 

 is at the rate of 41. 16*. per load of thirty-six trusses, the equivalent 

 price of oats is 32. per quarter. 



Farmers who have hay-ricks from which they often allow their men 

 to take as much as they please for their horses, will carefully measure 

 out the oats, which probably are much cheaper. Those who keep many 

 horses should cut ail the hay into chaff by a machine, and mixing this 

 with a proper proportion of oats, feed all their horses in mange with 

 a certain allowance of the mixture, a practice much more economical 

 than that usually adopted. In France and Germany the practice of 

 baking oats, as well as rye, into loaves for horse-food, is gaining ground, 

 and is said to be attended by an evident saving of food. 



OBELISK, a Greek word used to designate the well-known Egyptian 

 monumental monolith. Obelisk (flAfoj) U a diminutive of o/iclu> 

 (o/8Aof), a sharp-pointed thing, a spit, or skewer ; and was no doubt 

 applied to the Egyptian obelisk on account of its shape and pointed 

 end. Herodotus used the word t0(\laricot both for an obelisk (ii. Ill), 

 and a skewer or spit (ii. 41). The Italian name for an obelisk a<jv.,liu, 

 and the French aiijnilU, are derived from the Latin acui, a needle or 

 pin : a word applied also to the pin or bodkin used for fastening up the 

 hair, and which instead of tapering to a point like a needle, som> 

 at least, had the end sloped off abruptly ; as may be seen in Moutfaucon, 

 ' Ant,' supp., plate iii. 



The Egyptian obelisk is a tall, monolithic, four-sided shaft, which 

 diminishes gradually from the base to near the top, when the sides arc 

 sloped off so as to form a pyramidion, or diminutive pyramid, which 

 serves as the apex. In size, obelisks vary greatly; the shaft of 

 the Lateran obelisk, the largest remaining, is 105 feet high, and was 

 once more ; while one at Florence, the smallest known, is under 6 feet 

 in height. The larger Egyptian obelisks are almost invariably made of 

 the red granite of Syene ; the small ones of green basalt. Their sides 

 are, with few exceptions, covered with hieroglyphics. 



A great deal has been written respecting the origin and purpose of 

 the obelisk, without any very definite result. It may safely be said, 

 however, that the Egyptian obelisk was only a refinement on the stone 

 of memorial which it was the general primitive custom to set up on 

 special occasions or in holy places, of which that raised by Jacob at 

 Bethel (Gen. xxviii. 18) is an instance that will occur to every one. 

 Monoliths are in fact found among all the most ancient races. The 

 Egyptians, a highly cultivated people, gave to theirs an artistic form. 

 The peculiar tapering form and pointed termination were stated by 

 Pliny to have been suggested by a tongue of flame ; and the idea of 

 fire, or the worship of the sun, seems to have been by some tradition 

 generally associated among the ancients with the Egyptian obeli.-);. 

 Be the original idea what it may, the Egyptians somehow succeeded in 

 devising a form which in its way has never been equalled in grace of 

 outline, or, where conjoined with magnitude, in imposing effect. 



The Egyptians never placed their obelisks, as the moderns almost 

 invariably do, alone, in a broad open space. They fixed them in pairs 

 in front of the propylica of a temple, and the hieroglyphics inscribed 

 on their sides told the name and titles of the monarch who erected 

 them, and the purpose of the building before which they stood. They 

 were raised on low oblong bases or pedestals, which, however, were no 

 part of the obelisk proper, but were formed of separate blocks of gr.inito. 

 The position of the obelisk will be understood by the cut of the very 

 fine pair the most perfect extant which stood in front of the pro- 

 pylsca of the temple of Luxor : one of these has, since the drawing was 

 made, been removed to Paris. The bases are hidden by the accumu- 

 lated sand. 



The shaft of an Egyptian obelisk is usually about eight, but sometimes 

 ten times as high as the width of the base. The width at the top of the 

 shaft, or base of the pyramidion, is one fourth less' than the base of the 

 shaft. The height of the pyramidion is from one to one and a half 

 the width of it* base. We have described the shaft as quadrilateral, 

 but it is not square ; two of the sides, the front and back, being gene- 

 rally somewhat wider than the other two. Neither arc the sides per- 

 fectly flat. Under COLUMN and GRECIAN ARCIIITKCTI'HK it has been 

 shown that, to atone for a certain optical appearance, the Greeks maile 

 the outline of their columns, and other lines which in appearance were 

 right lines, to be in reality very slightly convex. In the same way, 

 and doubtless for a similar reason, that is^ to counteract a seeming 

 concavity of surface observable in really flat-sided obelisks, the 

 Egyptian* made the sides of their obelisks slightly convex, or, us it is 

 technically termed, to have an entasis on the plan. Ami it i 



