762 



PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. 



Part III. 



4709. The season of sowing oats is from the last week in February to the end of April. 

 About the middle of March is preferred by the best farmers. No preparation is ever 

 given to the seed ; but it should be plump, fresh, and free from the seeds of weeds. 

 Oats sown in autumn are generally killed during winter, the plant being in this respect 

 more tender than wheat, rye, or barley bigg. 



4710. The quantity of seed, where oats are sown broad-cast, is usually from four to six 

 bushels to the acre. Land sown with potatoe oats requires less seed, in point of mea- 

 sure, than when any of the other sorts are used; first, because this variety tillers better 

 than any other, and next, because having no awn, a greater number of grains are con- 

 tained in a bushel. 



4711. The mode of sowing oa/5 is almost universally broad-cast; but where they are 

 sown after turnips, or on other well pulverised soils, some adopt the row culture. 



4712. The after-culture depends on the mode of sowing, but seldom consists of more 

 than weeding before the flower-stalks begin to shoot up. 



4713. In harvesting oats in England, they are generally cut down with the scythe and 

 carried loose to the barn or stack ; but in the northern districts, and where threshing 

 machines are used, they are tied into sheaves if mown, but, for the most part, reaped with 

 the sickle, in order in both cases to facilitate the process of threshing. Oats are ready 

 for the scythe or sickle when the grain becomes hard, and the straw yellowish. They 

 should generally be cut before they are dead ripe, to prevent the shedding of the grain, 

 and to increase the value of the straw as fodder. They rarely get much damage when 

 under the harvest process, except from high winds, or from shedding, when opened out 

 after being thoroughly wetted. The early varieties are much more liable to these losses 

 than the late ones ; because the grain parts more easily from the straw, an evil to which 

 the best of grain is at all times subject. Early oats, however, may be cUt a little quick, 

 which, to a certain extent, lessens the danger to which they are exposed from high winds ; 

 and if the sheaves be made small, the danger from shedding after rains is considerably 

 lessened, because they are thus sooner ready for the stack. Under every management, 

 liowever, a greater quantity of early oats will be lost during the harvest process than of 

 the late ones, because the latter adhere firmly to the straw, and consequently do not drop 

 so easily as the former. [Brown.) In harvesting oats in wet seasons, tlie practice of 

 gaiting the sheaves (2940.] is generally adopted. In Sweden, in most seasons, the oat 

 crop is dried on frames or poles (683.), and in Russia, not only oats, but barley and rye 

 Are kiln-dried in the straw. 



4714. Kiln-drying oats and other corns in the straw has been found necessary) and is very generally 

 practised through the north of Russia, Livonia, Courland, and Lithuania, being the last operation of 

 harvest for preserving all kinds of corns, pease, beans, and buck-wheat They are dried in the fields as 

 much as can be ; but, when brought home, they are kiln-dried, and are then ready to be either threshed 

 out immediately, or put up in barns, without any danger of either corn or straw becoming musty or 

 rotting. The common practice of the boors is, during winter, to thresh out by degrees, as in this country, 

 their oats and barley, in otder to have straw fresh for their cattle, such straw being their only provender. 

 The process of kiln-drying by no means prevents the germination of the grain when used for seedj 

 while it not only preserves the grain and straw, but improves their taste and salubrity. It enables 

 Russia to export large quantities of rye and wheat with less risk of damage to the grain, than is incurred 

 by other nations of the north of Europe. 



4715. The kiln {fig. 551.) in general . . , , , . . . , , i, , i , n 

 and established use throughout Rus- ^ I il il il II I il I !l ll li I 

 sla, for the purpose of drying corn 

 in the straw, is heated commonly by 

 fires of wood. It is a simple and 

 cheaply-erected structure, the walls 



. eight feet high, and fifteen feet square 

 within : At this height there are 

 two strong cross beams (a), to support 

 t^e small timbers, laid over them as 

 Mbs. The corn stands in sheaves 

 above these ribs {jb), closely set up, the 

 band ends of the sheaves down, and 

 t"he corn or grain ends up : the walls then rise above the ribs about five or six feet more, the kiln being 

 closed by a simple ceiling of cross joists at this height, covered with thin turf. Any cheap and ordinary 

 roof answers to cover the whole. The fire-place is constructed so as to throw back the ascending spark ; 

 a small porch (c), directly opposite to the fire-place, prevents violent blasts of wind, and covers from rain 

 the fuel and the attendant. About 300 sheaves (twenty-five stooks) of corn are dried at one time. It is 

 put on in the evening, and left on the kiln through th6 night, after the wood has been burned into charcoal, 

 and the door above the fire-place closed. At one end of the kiln there is frequently an open shed or barn 

 (d), for convenience in bringing corn to, or taking it from the kiln. 



4716. The produce of oats is generally considered greater and of bettet quality in the 

 northern than in the southern counties; and the reasons are obviously that, in the latter^ 

 more attention is paid to their culture, and the climate is more favorable for the matura- 

 tion of the grain. Ten quarters an acre is reckoned a good crop in the north, but the 

 produce is often twelve and thirteen quarters, and the straw from two to three and a half 

 loads per acre. 



4717. The produce of oats in meal w 8 lbs. for 14 lbs, of corn. Sir H. Oavy found! 

 loo parts of oats afford 59 parts of starch, six of gluten, and two of saccharine uiatter; 



