38 CHAPTER 5. 



69. Characteristics of good oats. 



Good oats are clean, hard, dry, sweet, heavy, plump, full of flour, and 

 rattle like shot. They have a clean and almost metallic lustre. Each 

 oat in a well-grown sample is nearly of the same size. There are but few 

 small or imperfect grains. The hard pressure of the nail on an oat should 

 leave little or no mark. The kernel, when pressed between the teeth, 

 should chip rather than tear. The skin should be thin. The size of the 

 kernel will be less in proportion as the skin is thick. The colour of the 

 oat is not very material, but white oats are generally thinner in the skin 

 than black. Again, black oats will grow on inferior soils. Short plump 

 oats are preferable to large long grains. Bearded oats must have an 

 excess of husk. Oats are not necessarily bad because they are thick- 

 skinned or bearded ; but they must contain a less amount of flour per 

 bushel than thin-skinned oats without beards. 



Good oats are entirely without smell of any kind, except that of earth 

 in new samples. In testing oats by smell a double handful at least 

 should be taken for the purpose, and not merely a few grains. 



The flour should be almost tasteless, except a slight sense of milky 

 sweetness to the palate. In tasting oats the purchaser should put a con- 

 siderable number into his mouth without looking at them, in order to 

 get a fair average of the grains. If he selects one or two oats to taste, 

 he is sure to choose good grains. 



In testing oats for quality it is a good plan to spread out a quantity on 

 a table or sheet of paper. The small and imperfect grains can then 

 readily be detected. Good samples should be free from any admixture of 

 small black seeds. Inferior foreign oats are nearly always so mixed 

 sometimes in great quantities. The small black seeds weigh heavier 

 than oats, and, if numerous, give a deceptively heavy weight to the 

 sample. They consist principally of the seeds of the wild rape, tares, 

 and charlock, or wild mustard. 



70. Weight of good and bad oats. 



Good oats weigh about 42 Ib. per bushel. Very good samples reach 

 44 or 45 Ib., and from a few districts oats as high as 48 or even 49 Ib. 

 may be obtained in favourable seasons. Fair marketable oats weigh 

 about 39 Ib. The Government in their contract for oats for the cavalry 

 stipulate for a weight of 38 Ib. per bushel. Very inferior lots do not 

 weigh above 32 Ib. 



Very dirty oats, sometimes on account of the dirt and sand in them, 

 weigh better before than after they have been cleaned ; but as a general 

 rule the effect of cleaning and winnowing a sample is to make it weigh 

 more per bushel. The principal part of the refuse which is thrown out 

 consists of husks and of small, imperfect, or mouldy grains, which are 

 very light in proportion to bulk. 



