182 BRITISH HUSBANDRY. [Ch. XIII. 



in such cases the grain is not generally thrashed, and the straw is cut for 

 manger-meat, in which state it forms a very substantial food for cart-horses. 

 They may in this manner be also mixed with peas ; and we learn that when 

 they have been sown with barley, on soils that were neither too clayey nor 

 too sandy, their joint produce has always exceeded that of either species of 

 grain when sown separately*. 



SEED AND SOWING. 



The seed of the different varieties should be adapted to the kind of soil 

 upon which it is to be sown ; the Poland and Potato species require good 

 land ; the Tartarian, the black, and the red oat, are best adapted to moun- 

 tainous districts and late climates; and the other sorts may be grown upon 

 the generality of soils throughout the United Kingdom. It is, however, 

 thought advantageous to procure the seed, if possible, from inferior ground ; 

 or, if it cannot be obtained from a poorer soil than that on which it is in- 

 tended to be sown, then the best mode is to sow heavy, good seed, and 

 particularly that produced in the fens !• It is also of extreme importance 

 that it should be in a state of perfect ripeness when cut ; and, also, that it 

 should not be afterwards allowed to become heated. The latter defect may 

 be generally detected by a bad smell which the grain acquires by fermenting 

 in the heap ; the sure consequence of which will be that, although it may 

 sprout when sown, the plants will grow up weak, and will be apt to fail at 

 the time of blooming. It is only partially subject to a disease called 

 " sedge-root, or tulip-root," resembling smut \ ; and it is never steeped. 



The quantity usually sown varies with the species. The amount is 

 much larger than that of any other sort of corn ; seldom being under four, and 

 often as much as from six to seven bushels per acre : an old Cornish farmer, 

 indeed, on being asked liow much he would recommend, advised to " sow 

 them out of a cart with a shovel §." This is occasioned by the bushel 

 containing fewer grains, and neither being so uniform, nor so certain in 

 their germination ; nor does the seed tiller so profusely as other corn. 

 The potato-oat requires the smallest portion, both because it tillers well, 

 and has not an awn, or tail, on which account a measure contains many 

 more grains than any other of a good kind ; the Poland, on the contrary, 

 not planting so well, requires more seed Ij. Much must also depend upon 

 the richness of the soil, and the equality of the depth at which the seed is 

 placed ; for it should neither be sown too deep nor too shallow ; and, as it 

 is not easy to hit the appropriate medium, it is generally considered the 

 safer plan to sow a good round quantity. 



The usual time of sowing is in the months of March and April : from the 



* Von Thaer, Prin. Rais. d'Agric. '2ii(le edit, torn, iv. p. 218. 



f Drew's Norfolk Husbandrj', p. 119. 



X "This disease, which is, in some places, called " sec/irt(/," makes its appearance, in 

 ordinary seasons, towards the middle or the latter end of June, and is known by its soon 

 changing the natural colour of the sprout into that of a dark luxuriant green; but the 

 plants soon become pale and dwarfish, and at length decay without coming into ear, 

 leaving the place, for several j'ards around, an entire blank, or nearly so. At the bottom 

 of the stock, a multiplicity of small white sickly-looking fibres, resembling roots, are 

 generally found warped together, and in most of the diseased plants the seed is 

 attached to a single root, the only one at the plant, and from half an inch to an inch and 

 a half from its main junction with the stock." — Farm. Mag. vol. xxi. p. 32. 



The person from whose account this is extracted, ascribes the malady to the ground 

 being ploughed or harrowed while covered ivith snoio. On the correctness of which we 

 have no means of forming an opinion. 



§ Survey of Cornwall, p. 66. 



II Browo's Rural Aflfairs, vol. ii, p. 4!>, Gen. Rep. of Scotland, vol. i, p. 501 . 



